


papers, post-it notes, and protests

by mxgicxltrxgedy



Category: Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Gen, M/M, Multi, this was my nano for 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-01
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:15:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 50,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27809722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mxgicxltrxgedy/pseuds/mxgicxltrxgedy
Summary: Davey didn’t expect to get rejected from the teaching program at his dream university- but Sarah’s school accepted him. Time for him to move and start at a new school with all of Sarah’s friends. Race keeps brushing off all the comments about Spot, and what they do together. Albert intends to find out what it is. Jack’s trying to fix everything going on- while keeping his job and his scholarships.
Relationships: David Jacobs/Jack Kelly, Sarah Jacobs/Katherine Plumber Pulitzer, Spot Conlon/Racetrack Higgins
Comments: 22
Kudos: 54





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> starting new with greek food

David sat down on the bed in his new room to catch a breath after moving all his things into it. He didn’t have a lot of things- but they’d been working pretty consistently since the morning started and David wasn’t the kind of person who did any type of athletics for fun.

"Do you literally not have that much stuff?" Sarah asked as she put down the last of the plastic tubs on the dresser in her old room- David's new room. It was weird to think of this room now as his room, but it is what it is. 

"I said I wouldn’t. I didn't keep a lot of things at my old dorm, and a lot of the stuff we moved out of the house just got moved to the attic at home. I don't need a lot of stuff." David answered with a shrug, now looking at the few pathetic boxes that were in his room and would need to unpack before school started in a week or so.

New apartment. New school. New people. It was all new and David was just trying to forget about all the new and all the old and trying to focus on the things he knew and the things that he still needed to do. This apartment itself wasn’t actually _new_ to David, but he had only been for visits before when it was Sarah’s Place, but now with David transferring to Sarah’s college, and her and her girlfriend, Katherine, consolidating into one bedroom, it seemed easy to decide to live with his sister, her girlfriend, and their roommate. Now David’s roommates, it seems to be.

“Okay weirdo. We thought about getting lunch or dinner tonight with a few people- you’re coming right?” Sarah started unpacking a box of books onto his dresser and stacking them on top of the other. “It’s this Greek place downtown. Honestly, it’s heaven run by a little Greek lady- but if you wanna stay and unpack I won’t let my feelings get hurt.”

David thought about it. Some food sounded really good, especially after moving furniture and boxes of his things- but to Sarah a few people meant probably five to seven people. It wasn’t as if David couldn’t handle new people but more he didn’t want to learn that Sarah was only inviting him along with her friends to make sure he made some of his own or to find out that he didn’t fit in with any of them and would just sit off at the side of the table while they all made conversation.

“Who’re the few people?” 

“Well, there’s me, Kath, and Jojo,” so the apartment was going, “Specs said he’d probably come along too. Then our friends Jack and Charlie, but everyone calls Charlie Crutchie, so Jack and Crutchie. They’re roommates and friends of ours.”

Jojo was the fourth and final person living in the apartment. A girl about as tall as Sarah who was a computer science major. David hasn’t known her for a long time, but she seemed cool enough. David knew Specs however- he went to high school with David and Sarah. He got his name when he was little and had these glasses that made his eyes look incredibly large. He was the kid with spectacles- then he was Specs. So only really two new people were coming.

“Yeah sure- I’ll come. What time are we heading out?”

* * *

Later they were all seated at a big table in this tiny restaurant off the main street in downtown. David sort of expected a little Mom and Pop joint- and that’s exactly what he got when he walked in. It was painted with a stereotypical Greek style and had a counter where a person would order. The menu was above the counter made of white poster board and written with a black sharpie. David could only see two people working- a man in the back and a woman at the counter. Sarah just announced to the lady that they would order whenever the rest of their friends got there, and the woman gave a thumbs up. 

After waiting a while and talking, Specs showed up in normal fashion. He was wearing a tee shirt advertising the Exercise and Sports Science college department on the front with a pair of basketball shorts and running shoes. He took the seat next to David and they began catching up. He talked about how move-in went with his mom, and how he was waiting for Romeo to come soon. Specs made a joke about David transferring. Even though Specs was his friend, David laughed politely and only because he felt like he had to- it wasn’t his choice to switch colleges, but he was the lead here and here’s where he ended up. Specs then started asking Jojo about how her summer classes went and David tried to take his mind off the fact he actually transferred and more about Jojo’s cyber security professor who was an apparent wackjob. 

Soon enough, two college aged boys entered the restaurant and David could only assume it was Jack and Crutchie. The guys who walked in were about David’s age. One was a little shorter than David and Specs- also wearing a college tee shirt (but this time for the college Housing and Residence Life) and the other had sandy blonde hair and was in a wheelchair. They came in talking in a very animated way and came to sit- the one with the college tee shirt sat across from Specs and diagonally from David and the one with the wheelchair rolled himself to the end of the table.

“Hey guys! This is my brother, David. David this is Jack,” Sarah gestured to the man sitting next to her, “and Crutchie.” She gestured to the other man. 

“Hey David, I heard you were movin’ in with the girls?” Jack asked, settling into his seat and setting his arms on the table.

David looked over him once (in a way to take him in: he was attractive with his dark hair and light brown skin) then nodded. “Yeah, I am. I just moved in, actually.”

“You made a good choice, moving in with the sanest people from our friend group- so congratulations.” said Crutchie. Jack and Specs protested while the girls smiled triumphantly. 

“How am I not one of the sanest?” Specs asked. Crutchie had a smile on his face.

“One, you’re a STEM major, anyone who chooses to put that upon themselves is crazy, and two, the fact that you and Romeo are blind to each other’s feelings is also, as I said before, crazy.”

David has heard about Romeo a couple times from Specs. Romeo is his roommate and Specs has been harboring a crush on him since they first met in a sign language class freshman year. Specs says that Romeo is it for him but has told David he’s too afraid to ask him out or do anything about it because they’re best friends and roommates.

Specs nodded his head. “I am crazy for being a STEM major, but Romeo doesn’t like me, so you’re half right I guess.”

“I’m not wrong but believe what you wanna believe.” Crutchie turned to Jack, “You’re not sane because no sane person would sit on a skateboard and skate down the hill outside of our dorm right into an intersection at three a.m.”

“There was no one coming!” Jack defended with an eager smile on his face, like he enjoyed the fact he did sped down a hill like that. David looked at Jack in shock that he actually did that, but Jack was just smiling. 

“Doesn’t matter! You’re insane! You’re supposed to be a role model to your residents! Don’t forget, I live with you so I’m the only one who can judge your sanity- or lack thereof.” Crutchie turned back to face David. “See, you get the sane ones.”

“I guess I’ll have to believe you until I meet everyone else,” David said with a little laugh. “Sarah’s been wanting to introduce you all to me since she met you all.”

With everyone there, they all made their way up to the counter to order food. David got what Katherine suggested to him, a gyro with fries (and some playful ribbing on how Katherine pronounced gyros), and after their massive party ordered, they all sat back down to wait for their food. 

“Jack, what did Crutchie mean by you had to be a role model to the residents?” David asked, taking a sip of his drink.

“Oh, I’m an RA, which means that I kinda am in control of a floor in a residence hall on campus. I should be a role model to them and maybe not skateboard down the hill, but it was fun, and I didn’t get in trouble, so I technically am not a bad example.”

“Oh cool. At my old school, we called them CAs. My freshman year one was an asshole. He was always trying to find trouble.”

Jack nodded. “Yeah, some people take the job because they wanna be cops with something to prove. That’s not me. I’m there to help people out and make sure they have a good first year. As long as they do their best and don’t make me do paperwork, I’m not gonna rag on ‘em. They don’t need it.”

“Understandable.” 

“How was training this year, Jack?” Specs asked. “Anything fun happen?”

“Anything fun? Well, Spot got put into the Apartments this year, and he put in Finch and Mush as his roommates. Any time we have a party, we have to bug them now instead of Al and Racer. I don’t care how much he denies it- he actually has a living room and bedrooms, so he’s got the space to hold a real party.”

“Duly noted.” 

“You gotta bring up the back to school party to him ASAP then,” Jojo said. “He’s gonna hate it if you bring it up to him last minute like you did with Race and Albert.”

“True- I’ll ask him about it tomorrow.”

David said the only thing that was on his mind. “That was a lot of names all at once.”

That got a few chuckles out of everyone. Katherine spoke up, “There are a lot of us, but honestly, we always seem to have someone around. We need to introduce you to Race and Albert especially- they usually have a Switch set up in their room and I want to see you destroy all their precious high scores in Mario Kart.”

“Wait, are you good at Mario Kart?” Crutchie asked with an excited smile on his face. “If you are, we can finally stop the egotistical bragging out of those two.”

“I’m okay.”

“More than okay,” Sarah butted in, “He could totally go against them in a fair race.”

They soon got their food, and as Sarah said, it was heaven. Especially with the little sauce Jojo recommended he smear and pour on every part of his meal- which he did and made it so much better. Everyone was enjoying every bit of their meal and had mouthfuls of conversations that were mostly catching up from being separated over the summer. David chimed in with little jokes, questions, and answers when someone asked him something. It was a good meal, and after David felt a little better about the move. Maybe not the best- but a little better. Right now wasn’t a good situation, but it’s making the most out a bad one- which is all he can ask for really.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> move in day

Soon enough all the students who live on campus were starting to move into their dorm rooms. David could tell because the traffic started getting heavier in town, and some of the roads that went through campus started getting closed off for students to park and move in their belongings. It meant that schools would be starting soon- in the next few days, and that David was roped into helping Sarah and Jojo help their friends move in. 

Katherine was at work for the day- so she wouldn’t be able to help at all. Jack was also working- except he was working the move-ins at the dorm he worked in, checking in students, distributing keys, and helping show parents where to go. 

Sarah, Jojo, and David all packed up in Sarah’s car and drove to campus and parked in one of the parking lots labeled for commuters only. Campus was the fullest that David had ever seen. There were cars going through campus, and each of the residential parking lots were full of people moving boxes, totes, mini fridges, and just about anything a student would need for the year. David, Sarah, and Jojo began the hike into the center of campus where their other friends would all meet and distribute themselves.

David’s heard about all these people, Sarah and Spec’s friends, since they all met and became friends. He knows each name like he’s heard it before- but seeing them in action is different from how he imagined them all in his head. David imagined them like his friends at his old school- but they were all so much closer than he imagined them being. Everyone being all hands on deck to help people move in on a really hectic day? David’s friends (old friends?) would probably only help their roommates- and definitely not invite someone new to the group along just for the ride. It made him think about how different they are to people David knew at his other college.

When they were soon entering the middle of campus, they ran into Specs who was headed their way. He started talking about how Romeo would be getting to campus soon and how he’d be helping him move in later. Then they started figuring out who would help who move in. 

“Spot’s already moved in, and I think he said he would help Race and Albert move in earlier.”

“Okay. That probably means he left Finch and Mush hanging, right?”

“Yeah probably.”

“Jojo and I can help them out at the Apartments then. David can help Spot with Racer and Al.”

David was brought out of his passive listening when he heard his name. They were in the middle of campus in a small courtyard with three buildings surrounding it. 

“Speak of the devil- hey Spot!” As they were coming into the courtyard, they saw a guy standing on his own- shorter than all of them but standing wearing sunglasses with his arms crossed over his chest in a way that betrayed his height. The nickname “Spot” and the aura this guy gave off were two different things in David’s head- but he shouldn’t really be judging a book by its cover.

Spot turned and started walking towards them, and when reaching the group lifted his sunglasses onto the top of his head to hold them in place.

“You’re helping Racer and Albert, right?” Jojo asked. Spot looked David once over before responding. 

“Yeah.”

Sarah gestured to David. “Spot, this is my brother, David. He just transferred here and he lives with Kath, Jo, and I. He’s gonna help you out with our near and dear dumbasses.”

David raised his hand in a little wave and a small _Hey_.

“Dumbass is an apt word to describe them.” Spot finally gave a small smile. “Davey- you can head over there with me. Race texted me and told me he got here a couple minutes ago. Where are you all headed?”

“Back to my room. Romeo will be here in the next hour or so.” Specs said.

“We’re gonna go to your place and help out Finch and Mush. Also, Jack needs to ask you something so just text him tonight if you don’t hear from him.”

“Got it.” Spot pushed the sunglasses back down on his head. “Come on, David. Let’s get a move on.”

Spot stepped backwards away from the group and David followed in his way. As David got closer Spot turned the right side around and they walked together- David taking Spot’s lead.

“What’s your major?” Spot asked, glancing over at David.

“Uh, history ed.” David answered. “What about you?”

“I’m on a three-two history track to law school.” Spot took a turn onto a street and David followed him, still not used to campus in the slightest. 

“That’s cool. You planning on being a lawyer?”

David could hear the little bit of snark in his reply, “Yeah, that’s why I’m going to law school.”

David stayed silent for the rest after that. He didn’t know what to make of Spot. Intimidating would definitely be an apt word to describe him. 

“Why history ed?”

David had to think about his answer for a little bit- not because he didn’t have one but because he was always blindsided when people asked it, which is dumb because that’s a question all college students asked each other to get to know one another.

“I like kids, I like teaching, and I like history. I plan on teaching at least the older ones and I had a teacher who really helped me and helped me see what I could do and I wanna be like him.”

Spot didn’t say anything, and he took another turn down a smaller and not as used path through buildings. David wasn’t even paying attention to his surroundings but was following Spot’s direction.

“That’s cool. I’m glad you like kids because someone has to.” Spot chuckled to himself. “Not that I hate kids. I actually care about kids and their wellbeing, or whatever. I plan on going into family law, so I get it, but I remember being twelve years old and a dick to my teachers and all I can say is _Godspeed_.”

David let out a little laugh. He paused, then looked around, seeing nicer buildings than the older classroom buildings he was used to seeing on campus. 

“I have no idea where we are right now.”

Spot paused. They were on the sidewalk by a road and across the street there was a nice building. There were cars parked outside, and the double doors were locked in an open position- to let people move in and out the entrance to the building without having to hold the doors open.

“That’s the East-West building. Don’t ask me why it’s called that, I have no idea why. I think they’re waiting for someone to donate enough money to name the building after them, but it’s been three years and no dice. It’s a new, nice dorm on campus and Racetrack and Albert can both afford to stay here. Honestly- it’s really nice and worth the money.”

Spot looked both ways on the street before jaywalking to the front of the building. Outside there were metal tables bolted into the ground- most likely for people to hang out or eat together. No one was sitting around except for one guy. He was lanky and had his legs spread out on the chair next to the one he was sitting on. He had his phone ducked under himself like he was trying to see the screen but the sun was shining and he couldn’t make it out. The sun was shining pretty hard in David’s opinion.

“ _Tony Higgins_!” Spot shouted- his hands cupped around his mouth. The man jumped from the noise, but when he looked up smiled at Spot. 

He got up from his chair and was almost in a blink hugging Spot against his chest. For Spot calling them ‘dumbasses’ earlier, David could see that it was all affection and not the intimidating _‘I don’t care about you’_ air. 

David caught up to them, but waited awkwardly and silently for them to finish their little moment. 

Spot released himself from the grip and faced David. “Race, this is Sarah’s brother, David; he just transferred here. David, this is one of our dear idiots: Racetrack.”

Race slung his arm around Spot’s shoulder. “Also known as Race, Racer, Tony, Anthony, Genius Supreme, and Spoons Champion of 2016- in that order.”

“Hey, no nicknames for me to remember. Just David.” David said.

“David’s gonna help me with movin’ you and Albo in. And I wanna get started so I don’t have to be doing this all day, where’s Al?”

Race stuck a thumb out to the double doors behind him. “He just got his key and wanted to see the room before we brought all the stuff up. If something’s not gonna fit, we’re just gonna keep it in the car til we go back home again.”

When Albert came down, and he and David were properly introduced, they began moving things from a beat-up car that Racetrack proudly claimed as his own and a nicer SUV which Albert lovingly called ‘ _Sue_ ’. David didn’t think it was as bad as it was moving his own things into his apartment- the dorm hall had elevators where David’s apartment complex didn’t.

They worked over the next hour moving totes, TVs, a refrigerator, a microwave, and laundry baskets of things. When they finally finished, they all took a break.

David was sitting at the desk chair on Albert’s side of the room. Albert was sitting on his bed, setting up his computer to the wifi. Spot and Race were both on Race’s bed. 

“What do you think of your new beautiful campus, David?” Racetrack asked, tossing a Rubik’s cube in the air and catching it again.

David had to think about his answer. “I honestly know nothing about campus. I have no idea where anything is and I’ve only been here like, three times, before transferring.”

“Wait, seriously?” Albert looked up from his laptop. “I went on, like, five different tours before moving here.”

“Yeah, I didn’t really look at the campus or anything. The program accepted me, and I just transferred, I didn’t really think about it.”

“Why did you transfer here?” Spot asked, turning his head to face David rather than Race.

The dreaded question. David really didn’t want to answer the question even though he knew it was coming. Sarah, and maybe by default Katherine knew about the situation- and his parents knew, not because he wanted them to know but because it was something that had to be shared at some point or another if he was moving in with his sister.

“I didn’t get accepted into the education program up there, and it was either change my major or change schools- and there’s nothing else I really want to do. So now I’m here.”

Race looked at David with a sad look in his eyes. It was almost like pity. “Yeah, man, that’s rough. But think, that if you didn’t come here you wouldn’t have met us.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” David smiled. “By the way, Katherine and Crutchie said that we need to battle in a Mario Kart race. They think I have a chance.”

Albert scoffed. “Fat chance! You’re looking at the kid who was named Racetrack because of the races he won in Mario Kart.”

David turned his head back to Race. “Is that true?”

Spot answered for him. “No. He’s been called Racetrack since he was in elementary school and only Jack and I know why.”

“Why do you have the truth? I have the chance to reinvent myself here.” Race gestured to David.

“Because you would never be able to keep any of that up.” 

“And I’ve heard about all of you from Sarah and Specs, so you can’t go too far from their stories.” David added. 

With so many stories he’s heard about all their friends, it’s hard to keep up with all the names. It’s mostly a bluff to remember stories about specific people- it’s mostly so-and-so hopped the fence to the graveyard to do a séance, or this person once wore a Chun Li costume in front of a pro-life protestor without any pants on under their costume. 

“You’ve heard stories?” Race asked, a gleeful look in his eyes. “Of course, Sarah would tell you everything.”

“Like Specs has any room to talk.” Albert interrupted.

Race nodded towards Albert, then continued. “How much have you heard about us?”

“It can all pretty much be summed up as stupid stunts or funny things you all did.”

Spot laughed and made a point to focus on Racetrack. “See, David’s only been here for a week and he already knows that you all are idiots.”

“Like you have any room to talk!” Albert repeated. “Mr. ‘I’m gonna climb in the steam tunnels without checking when they’d release hot air that would give me second degree burns’!”

All of them except for Spot started laughing. He didn’t look too pleased, but he didn’t deny the accusation. David felt like he was in on the joke, picking fun at each of them. Maybe it would be okay here.

* * *

Later, when everyone got done with moving people in, it was time to eat. Not because it was dinner time, but because everyone was _starving_. Apparently, Jack, Spot, and Crutchie had already thought this through. They made plans to get food from a Mexican restaurant to go then come back to the courtyard where David met Spot and they could all eat together for the first time of the semester.

They all piled into cars and made their way to the restaurant, ordering and leaving with their food as quickly as possible (with so many people coming in at once, David thought they all got used to getting and going as to not make the restaurant staff hate them). When one car got their food they made their way back to campus, and eventually everyone was out in the grass of the courtyard in a large, misshapen circle. 

David met more people he had yet to: Finch and Mush, Spot’s roommates at the apartments, and Spec’s Romeo. The three of them seemed nice, but David didn’t really get to know them over the dinner as it was a lot of overlapping conversation of what everyone did over the summer, where people were living, where Jack was working, and what classes everyone was taking next semester. 

It seemed like chaos to David, but as the night went on he could see how everything between each person worked. Each person got a chance to talk to the people they wanted to talk to, even if it took a while or someone had to shush someone else to get there. Most people talked with three or four others, but would sometimes call to someone else outside of the little, smaller group. When that happened, it was almost like a game of telephone to reach the other person, catching attention.

It was all chaos, but it was organized chaos, and David could get behind that.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> but before school starts...

With almost everyone, it was obvious that Specs really liked Romeo. It wasn’t a large secret to anyone except for Romeo. Specs has liked Romeo almost since the first day they met. They were both freshman and taking the intro sign language course and they were paired up- been friends ever since. Sarah and Katherine especially have been hearing about Romeo since he was ‘the cute guy in his ASL class’ and then as ‘a new friend’ in their slowly growing group, then as his roommate. 

Sometimes Specs thinks that people only see the potential relationship between him and Romeo because Specs is so obvious about it all the time. Specs doesn’t stop himself from looking over at Romeo anytime someone says something just to catch his reaction or to make eye contact and have a secret, wordless conversation. He doesn’t hold back in touching Romeo on the shoulder or on the hand. Nothing about them together has ever been strictly platonic from Specs side of things. Everyone sees them as an almost couple because Specs isn’t holding back.

On the other hand, Specs is completely terrified of Romeo finding out that he likes him. Rejection would hurt worse from his best friend. Then they also have to live together. They schedule classes together so they can spend more time together, and they are in the same clubs. Specs wouldn’t want to lose Romeo just because he can’t get a handle on his emotions. Specs can reign himself in- hell, he does it almost every day.

Specs has Romeo in his life now, just as a friend, but still there. Specs doesn’t want to take the risk. 

With their last day on campus before classes started, Specs and Romeo were talking a walk around campus and did random things- playing Pokémon GO, going inside the library just to walk around, and just enjoying each other’s company. They would brush their arms against each other, make eye contact (that always seemed to last longer than it did with someone like Finch or Jack), and playfully banter and joke. It was nice to actually spend time with Romeo again after not seeing him for most of the summer- and they have the rest of the year together too.

The best part is that at the end of the night, when they were both getting tired of walking and swiping in battles on Pokémon GO, they were able to go to their room together. They would walk together, get in the elevator together, and open the door to their room (with a little argument about who would actually have to _unlock_ their door), and then they could lay in their beds next to each other. 

(It’s so much better than over the summer when the only thing they had was FaceTime calls and any small trips they were able to do in between work and their families).

* * *

David is in the kitchen making a fine meal of a chicken ramen packet while checking his new school email. School hadn’t started yet but David’s been getting emails almost daily with mostly trivial things, but a specific notification caught his attention, from the Office of Student Accessibility.

As he was reading it, stirring the noodles in a pot on the stove, he was getting more upset. Maybe upset wasn’t the right word for it. 

At his other school, David was able to get accommodations for his depression and anxiety in class. It typically meant that he was able to take his exams in a private room, or he would be given extensions for assignments in case he was hit with a wave of depression and needed the extra time to turn in assignments. David didn’t always need it, and he tried to not use it unless he was in need of it, but it was nice to know that if something happened he would be able to stay caught up in class. 

Because he transferred, David had to meet with the Office of Student Accommodations and have an interview to determine whether or not he could get accommodations again. He handed over his doctor’s notes and a letter from a psychologist David used to see and was hoping that everything would fall into place and work out in his favor. Sarah said she knew people with similar accommodations, and everything’s worked for them.

This email said the opposite, however. David read the formal email from the head of the Office, some Mr. Delancey. It denied David his services, quoting the medical notes and psychologist letters were ‘too out of date’ to be accepted and that David could get new papers from a doctor and new recommendation of academic accommodations from a psychologist to be reviewed again.

David didn’t always need his accommodations. He didn’t _need_ them, but it will be harder to focus on being a good student when he doesn’t have the safety net under him. Classes start tomorrow- so he doesn’t even know if his classes will be okay or anxiety inducing yet. David didn’t know if he’d be able to see another doctor or another psychologist.

The noodles were getting done, and David strained the water from the pot. He took a deep breath and tried to hope for the best to happen in the next coming semester.

* * *

Jack considered himself very lucky with his placement in his new dorm. He doesn’t always get to choose which building he gets placed in as an RA. He’s allowed to put in his preferences, but that’s never a done deal and one can only hope. But Jack got in good.

It was an accessible building on campus (as it needs to be for Crutchie to be his roommate), but it has more things that Jack loves. It’s not the nicest building on campus- they still have shared bathrooms for each floor, but Jack and Crutchie have their own bathroom because they’re in one of the accessible rooms (unheard of to get a private bathroom, even for RAs). They don’t have a _ton_ of space in their room- Jack bunked his and Crutchie’s beds so they would have more space to move around in- but the building also had an amazing loft that had TVs and couches to hang around in. It was large, accessible, and it made it feel like a ski resort with stone and wood accents everywhere. He couldn’t wait to get up in the loft all the time in the school year.

Jack checked Kath into the building, because he needed some one on one time with one of his best friends before they were going to get busy with work and school. They went up to the beautiful loft that Jack loved so much and turned on the TV to a show they both wouldn’t mind having on as background noise and talked about everything, but mostly about the new change in their lives.

“How is it living with David though? It’s got to be weird having a dude living with you now.”

Kath shrugged. “Honestly, it isn’t bad. He’s clean and chill, and a good person generally so I don’t mind it at all. He’s funny too- sometime his mouth won’t keep up with his head, but I think he’s still shy around you all.”

Jack thought about what she said for a moment. Then asked a question he thought about whenever he first was introduced to David back at the Greek restaurant.

“What’s his deal?” He said softer than his other question. “Is he, you know-“

Jack made the gesture with his hand that all queer people can understand- _is he gay? Does he like men?_ Maybe it was a little base but it was the first thing that came to mind when he thought about it.

Kath laughed upon seeing it. “Yeah, he is. I mean, he’s never said anything to me about it- but Sarah knows he’s gay, so I know he’s gay. He had a boyfriend for part of his freshman year.”

Jack couldn’t stop the small smile from spreading on his face. “Okay, okay, cool.”

“Why? You thought he was cute, didn’t you?” Kath knew Jack too well, and how many other times does the _‘What’s his deal?’_ question end in any other way?

He couldn’t fully meet her eyes, “Yeah, he’s cute.” 

Jack saw David and his dark hair and brown eyes and was immediately taken. He needed to talk to David more, obviously, get to know him and see if they actually could get along in more ways than one, but for right now Jack has an interest. An interest could lead Jack far, or to nowhere.

Kath smirked at Jack. “Well, I don’t meddle in my friends relationships-“

Jack snorted at that- she’s been actively meddling in Specs and Romeo’s bromance since it started.

“-but I will say that I saw him check you out when we were at Taziki’s the other day.”

Jack stopped. “Seriously? Kat, don’t be fucking with me.”

Kath held her hands up. “I’m not fucking with you- I’m just saying you might have a chance, if you wanted to follow that.”

* * *

Race liked the Apartments. He had only been to them a few times, but each time the place grew on him more and more. They were far enough from the main parts of campus to be isolated and away from the noise and bustle, but also close enough as to not hike to your classes every day. Race didn’t live in the Apartments, but now that Spot lived in them, he could take advantage of the amazing, overly expensive living situation. 

Each apartment has three or four bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, and two bathrooms. A person living there didn’t have to check in their guests, and if a student was over the age of twenty-one, they didn’t get in trouble for having alcohol in their room. The Apartments had their own rules- and Spot took advantage of it.

Race was in bed with Spot; a nice full-sized bed, not stuffed together in a twin XL. They had their own space in the bed, and their own pillows. Spot was asleep. Race didn’t usually fall asleep until late (or rather, early) in the morning, especially with his summer sleep schedule still working. 

Him and Spot needed the time to see each other again. A summer apart was always a little lonelier without Spot around. Not like he needed Spot to be around, but it’s nicer when at the end of the day Racer can go to Spot’s place and forget about the rest of the world for a few hours.

Race’s relationship with Spot was unconventional, having been _seeing_ each other since near the end of their second semester at school together. ‘Seeing each other’ was definitely a loose term and their _seeing_ never involved dates, talking about each other to anyone else, or even breakfast together in the morning after. 

Race will take what he can get through, and right now, he’s getting a warm body to lay with and a full-sized bed to sleep on. And the boy- even if it’s only part of him. 


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> new friends and coming to conclusions

David was ready to distract himself from being in a new place and seeing new people every day by starting his classes to have something new to worry about. Classrooms never really change. The students sit at the desks or tables in the classroom- spacing enough away from each other because no one knows each other but close enough to each other so they can side eye the professor. It hasn’t changed in the past fifty years, and it wouldn’t change in the hundred or so miles to a different school. That gave Davey comfort.

It was easy to get into a routine after the first two weeks. David would drive to campus in the morning, or ride along with any of his roommates if they were heading around the same time. He would grab a coffee from the Starbucks on campus (he’s very grateful he’s able to get some caffeine in the morning) and he would go to class. In between classes or if he was waiting for his ride to finish classes, he would go to the library and work on homework. He didn’t have a lot of it, being the beginning of the semester, but David wanted to stay on top of everything. He didn’t want to slack, or to procrastinate. He didn’t want anything to upset him being a good student, and he also didn’t have his accommodations to help him if he needed it.

David likes the routine. He was even able to see some of his new friends (?) around campus and talk to them. He and Crutchie ate lunch together one day at the dining hall. He also would sometimes sit with Spot and Jojo during their study sessions in the library.

One thing David likes to do is go to the small coffee shop in the library and do his homework in there. It’s nice because it has a large window overlooking the courtyard where he, Sarah, Jojo, and Specs all met Spot on move in day and they all ate dinner together. It has the hustle and bustle of people coming in and out which is very calming to him and helps him focus on the work he needs to do. He’ll order a coffee with just enough sugar to make him worry for his teeth and work on anything he has to do- or watch YouTube videos before class. 

Everything is starting to feel normal.

* * *

Albert decided that he’s on a mission. His classes are going as they normally do. His life is working in the way he likes, except he has a suspicion.

He and Race have been friends since freshman orientation. They were in the same orientation group and immediately clicked. They spent so much time together in each other’s rooms in their first semester that they decided to become roommates in the next semester- and have since been living together. 

Race doesn’t always mention where he’s going when he leaves the room, especially if it’s later in the night. He’ll sometimes say he’s going for a walk, or that he’s going to the library, but most of the time it’s just that he’s leaving. Race will shove on some shoes, grab his backpack, and leave. Albert doesn’t really mind. Race is an adult, and Albert’s not so much of a clingy friend that he needs to know where Race is at every moment of the day. Albert will leave sometimes without telling Race everything too.

Sometimes though, Race won’t come back til morning. Albert started noticing it last semester. It’s been an investigation that’s been on the backburner constantly- but now he has a lead.

Albert thinks Race and Spot have been together. He doesn’t know how he came to the conclusion- only that his mind arrived there. After seeing it, it’s like he couldn’t unsee it. It was _so_ obvious. The way that Spot interacts with everyone versus how he interacts with Race. The way that Race will go a little farther in pushing Spot’s buttons than the rest of them do. It’s like there’s a large elephant in the room only Albert can see.

Race has spent two nights out of the room since the semester has started. Albert doesn’t want to say anything that might make Race back away, or make Race feel uncomfortable, but he’s been _so_ curious and he just wants to know if he’s right or wrong or if it’s something different completely. 

Albert made comments so far about Race spending time at Spot’s apartment, or how they sit together anytime they go out with anyone. Race has so far shoved them off, even once deflecting off what Albert said: essentially by saying that he and Spot were best friends and would Albert like people saying that about them because they were roommates. Albert didn't care about the accusation of Race and him being together- he knew they weren't. It doesn't bother him, so why would the same accusation about Spot bother Race so much unless something was happening between them? 

Albert has a mission, and alongside getting his degree, he’s going to figure out what’s going on with Race and Spot.

* * *

Classes were finally picking up; David had actual homework to complete. It wasn’t a lot, but he had a few little assignments due in the week and it felt like the perfect time to go to the library coffee shop and crank out everything before he went home for the day to make dinner. 

He went to the counter and ordered his coffee, and when he got it he sat down at a table by the window, put one earbud in, and started on his work. 

It was mostly busy work, so it was easy to just sit and write on his laptop, stopping only to take sips of his coffee or to change the song he was listening to. That was until a person came in his view. 

“Hey David!” Jack stood on David’s left, holding his own coffee in his hand. He had his backpack on his shoulders but didn’t seem as if he were in a rush to go to class or a meeting. “What’s up?”

“Nothing much.” David replied. “I’m just trying to crank some homework out before I go home later. What are you up to?”

“I just got done with class for the day and came here for my coffee.”

“Do you want to sit down? Join me?” David asked, less out of being polite and more out of wanting to spend more time with Jack. David has to admit that since he started hanging out with more of Sarah and Spec’s friends, especially Jack, he’s gotten used to taking once over’s to look at Jack, or to see the twinkle in his eye during arguments. It’s all physically right now- David still doesn’t know Jack super well but knows he’s attractive and getting to know Jack could only lead to a better friend at the moment. David honestly needs some closer friends.

“If you got homework to do I don’t want to bother you.” 

David saved the work on his laptop quickly, then closed it. “Honestly, no bother. I’m killing time right now before my next class.”

Jack smiled at David, then took the seat across from him.

They started talking about each of their days, which then led Jack to ranting about one of his professors. It’s the first time he had this teacher but had heard stories from some of the people in his same major. Jack was talking animatedly and with his hands. He had a lot of ease that David didn’t have. Jack looks like he could easily exist anywhere, and with anyone. It was equal parts admiring and intimidating.

David talked about his day, and how he was still trying to navigate his way around campus. He’s gotten lost a few times and took a wrong route but would think he’d be late and end up in the place he needed to be anyway. Jack laughed at the little stories of him getting lost and walking into the wrong building or how close David would be to a place without knowing it.

Jack offered to give him a tour since David never got one, and David took him up on that. Jack said he’s been living on campus for about two years straight since he first arrived at school as a freshman. He’s lived in the different dorms on campus in the typically academic year and during summer break, and parts of winter break as well. 

He said, _“This place is basically my home, and I know it like the back of my hand. I bet I could show you things that normal students wouldn’t even know about.”_ They stayed talking and drinking coffee up until David had to leave for his class, which Jack walked him to- to make sure he didn’t get lost, of course. 

* * *

The day after next David was back at the coffee shop, sitting by the big window that overlooked the courtyard with his coffee. He pulled out his laptop and started working on homework, one earbud in and stopping his typing only to take a drink or to change the music. Eventually he was interrupted again with a _“Hey, Davey!”_ and he stopped typing, saved his document, and closed his laptop. Just as Jack was sitting down, David slid his laptop back into his backpack so he could have his full attention on Jack (not like he was going to get any work done anyway). They talked and talked up until David had to leave for class, and Jack walked him there.

Jack and David’s little meeting became a little bit routine- each Monday and Wednesday when David had one morning class and one later afternoon class and Jack finished early in the day. David would work on homework until Jack would walk through the coffee shop doors. Sometimes Jack wouldn’t even get anything to drink and would come straight to sit down with David at the table. 

It was easier for David to get close with Jack and joke around with him. He was feeling more and more comfortable every day. It also helped that the more David and Jack hung out together, the more David felt right in his first impression of Jack. He’s cute and attractive, but he’s also funny, and from the stories he’s told, empathetic. He talked about how he and Crutchie became friends back in high school, and how he met Sarah (arguing with a flat earther who came to reeducate college students about third grade science), and why he decided to become an RA on campus.

David has also been sharing. He’s told Jack that he didn’t get into his program at his other school, and how he just transferred here to stay in the same major. He didn’t go too in depth, but he shared stories about some of the things that happened at his old school; like how his advisor for his freshman year ended up becoming a murderer, or how there was a student who dressed as a gorilla and climbed the water tower and stayed there until the fire department had to bring him down.

Jack's the exact kind of guy Davey can imagine him having a future with, but for now Jack's a good friend and pleasant company, and that's all he needs.

* * *

Jack texted Spot about throwing the back to school party at his apartment, and they needed to talk more about it because holding a party is a more complicated affair than everyone thinks it is.

Jack had to work at the desk in his dorm building a few hours a week as a part of his RA job, and he had a late night shift which Spot found to be the best time to talk to Jack. Spot was in Jack’s dorm building leaning over the raised up desk while Jack was behind it watching the computer and making sure everyone who came in the building was allowed to live there through the fob each student had that gave them access to the building. 

“I’ll have to talk to Finch and Mush about it, but we can probably do it at my apartment if we don’t get into the stupid shit. We still technically live on campus, you know. I don’t want to get kicked out.”

Jack scoffed. “Of course I know that dude. I work in Housing and Residence Life, but that also means I know how to do the stupid shit off the radar because I know how it all works from the inside, but if you actually don’t want any stupid shit we can just hook up a Bluetooth speaker and maybe have some video games and cards set up. We also need to celebrate all the summer birthdays, so I thought we could do that too and get a cake from Wal-Mart or something.”

Spot nodded with a thoughtful look on his face. “Okay. We got to figure out a day though. Text the group chat and ask them when they’d be free next week on the Thursday, Friday, or Saturday night next week. We can figure it out then, but none of us in the apartment have any classes Thursday night or Friday at all, so we can do it then.”

Spot pulled his phone out and started typing; Jack pulled out a post-it note to write down that he needed to text the group chat tomorrow about times. He’d wait to text the group chat when he got the okay from Finch and Mush.

“What have you been up to? I haven’t seen you in a good bit.” Jack asked. 

Spot shrugged. “Nothing much really. I’ve been doing the normal stuff- arguing with dude-bros in my history class, hanging out with Race and Jojo, and, you know, enjoying my deliciously glorious apartment where I have my own bathroom unlike any of you losers.”

Jack gave him a thin-lipped smile. “I hate that you won the lottery for that place.” 

Spot gave a full grin in return. “I love that I won the lottery for that place.” Spot nudged Jack’s computer from over the desk. “What have you been doing?”

“Pretty much the same. I got work and that’s chill- I mean, no one’s died yet. Crutchie and I’ve been on each other’s hip like usual.” Jack hesitated before continuing. “Davey and I’ve been hanging out a lot more recently.”

Spot’s eyebrows shot up with interest. “You and ‘Davey’?” He put his fingers in air quotes.

“Yep.” Jack tried to act nonchalant, but he knew what he was doing. “Me and Davey.”

“Is that a romantic _hanging out_ or he’s new and I pity him _hanging out_?” Jack didn’t offer a response except for the blank look that he knew Spot could interpret. “Oh okay. Have fun with that.”

“You think so?”

“Yeah he actually seems cool. I was in the library with Jojo and he sat with us to study. He’s like us and actually gets stuff done in the library, unlike all of the rest of you.”

Jack smirked a bit. “Funny, I meet David in the coffee shop and we never get any work done. “

“Maybe that’s just a you thing then. Either way, I wish you the best of luck in trying to get with Sarah’s brother.”

Jack snorted. “That’s real eloquent. I don’t just want to ‘ _get with’_ him.” 

“More serious then? What about him caught your eye?”

Jack’s eyes shifted down to the keyboard. “I don’t know, at first I just thought he was cute. Then I started hanging out with him and he’s funny, and smart. I just kinda get along with him really well and I want to spend more time with him.”

Spot rolled his eyes. “Sap.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> hey, just a little warning, in the first section of this chapter there's some misconceptions and just rude statements made about an Autistic character (it's not any of our newsies saying it!)- it's not bad or rude words, but i just wanted to put the warning in there so you all know!

Albert and Finch, although having different concentrations, do have the same major: psychology. Since they became friends, they’ve always tried to see what classes they can take together. It’s always better to have at least one person you know in class than no one, and since they got along they always had a partner for projects or class discussions. They had one class together last semester, and they were able to get one this semester too.

The class they have together was the abnormal psych class which is the class most psychology majors are really excited to take. In that class you skip all the Freud and wanting to screw your mom, and all the Stanford Prison Experiment and ethicality discussion to finally talk about all the interesting different mental disorders. 

For the semester so far, it’s been an okay class. Nothing’s really stood out, but nothing had really brought it down either. Albert and Finch will go to class together, sit in their seats in the row of desks by the door, take notes, then leave. It was all pretty normal until the day they started their unit on Autism.

Albert was actually excited for the unit, considering he is Autistic. It’s always interesting to learn something you know a lot about in class, and it’s always a surreal experience to hear yourself described in an academic sense. And it always made it cool in class discussions because he was able to talk with experience. He never had to outright say anything, but it was more he could add to the discussion than if he were talking about something like Schizophrenia. 

Everything was going about as it does. Albert and Finch sat in their seats and pulled out their laptops to take their notes for the day. The professor came in and passed around the attendance sheet and started her lecture.

All the basic Autism information was there, the information that even if you didn’t know anyone with Autism, you knew. _Autism is a neurological and developmental disorder that affects communication and behavior… blah, blah, blah._ Everything was going fine until the professor started going more in depth. 

Once she went in depth, she started saying a few wrong things, like that because ‘people with Autism’ (Albert rolled his eyes at the person first language- but some people didn’t get that Autistic people prefer to be called Autistic) had a harder time with social cues and making friends (okay, true) it would be unlikely that they had friends at all (completely false). When she had said that Finch, as slyly as he could, turned his head around and made a face at Albert that had a very clear meaning.

The professor continued the lecture and on a new slide of her presentation it said that people with Autism tend to be ‘cold’ and that they lack empathy. She added that they have trouble showing love to others.

Albert didn’t want to continue without saying something. He raised his hand and waited until he got the nod of acknowledgement from the professor before he spoke. “You’re describing Autistic people like their psychopaths or something. Autistic people have empathy, they just show it differently. They can have friends and be normal, compassionate, loving people.”

The professor looked taken aback at his comment. Albert tried to hold his stare at her, to show he wouldn’t back down. “They can have friends, but it’s unlikely they’ll be able to make them with their problems with social interaction. And they do tend to be unempathetic. I’ve been teaching this class for years, and this is your first time taking it, so can I please ask that your comments be made in a nicer tone?”

She pursed her lips and went to turn back to the presentation. Albert wasn’t finished. He raised his hand, but this time didn’t wait for permission to speak.

“I happen to know about Autism, Professor.” Albert said. She turned back to face him. “I’m Autistic, and sorry if I get a little upset with you calling people like me friendless and unempathetic.”

Finch joined in, but with a rib at the professor. “Are you getting all your info from _Big Bang Theory_ or something?”

“Typically, a person with Autism wouldn’t have been able to speak so frankly in front of a class.” 

Albert immediately jumped to shut that comment down. “Okay, look, you aren’t my doctor or my psychologist, so you have no right to say anything about the validity of my diagnosis.”

“It’s okay, Albie.” Finch said, taking a look behind him and catching Albert’s eye. “Those who can’t do, teach.”

“I won’t take any more of these interruptions.” The professor slapped her hand on her podium to get their attention. The class watched between the professor and Albert and Finch. “If you don’t like the content I’m teaching, you can leave my class for the day.”

Albert closed his laptop, a little too forcefully, and he shoved it in his backpack. He didn’t even bother zipping it up. Finch grabbed his laptop and held it in his arms. They both made their way out of the room, closing the door behind them. They were down the hallway before either of them spoke.

“What the fuck was she talking about?” Finch asked, rhetorically, and angrily. 

“I have no clue.” 

Albert is frustrated, and angry. It’s always hard to get people to look past all the misconceptions about Autism and learn that Autistic people aren’t strange creatures, or only part of a person, but when a professor of a college course is spouting that bullshit- it gives credence to the people who are wrong and it gives them footing to stand on.

They made their way out of the psychology building and started to walk. They weren’t walking with a particular destination in mind, but anything was better than class.

“Albie, don’t listen to anything she’s saying. She obviously hasn’t ever met an Autistic person, let alone learned anything about them. She shouldn’t even be teaching that class.”

Albert took a deep breath. “I know. I’m not taking anything she said to heart. I’m going to talk to Jack about what I should do though. He usually knows where people need to go.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Report her, obviously.” Albert turned in the way to the dining hall. “I’m also going to talk to the head of the ASD concentration because she shouldn’t even be teaching. You want to get something to eat?”

“Yeah sure. And if you want me to go with you to anything, I will. Just let me know.”

* * *

**Email sent to all students:**

_Dear students,_

_Welcome back for another great semester here on our beautiful college campus! As we announced last semester, we have received a wonderful donation from alumnus Ted Roosevelt for our new Campus Sports and Recreation Center. As we start construction for our new Recreation Center, we will need to close off and block areas of campus for construction needs. The pedestrian pathway going from the Harlem building to the Administration and Queen buildings will be closed off. We have created a new pedestrian pathway and have attached a new campus map with this email to show the new pedestrian route. The route will round from the Administration and Queen buildings around the Mercury Science building and Ross’s Student Health Services to meet back again with the Harlem building._

_Thank you again for your continued support through these changes to our beautiful campus. Go Bulls!_

* * *

“I understand that the professors hate us, but can’t they hate us and not give us homework? Why must they make us suffer doing boring shit?”

David rolled his eyes over at Jack. “I think it’s part of the joy for them. It hasn’t changed for years and I doubt it will any time soon. They have to slave over and grade the work- it’s a cycle.”

“Ugh,” was all Jack had in response to that, and he flopped his back onto the bed they were both perched on. Jack talked about wanting to get off campus for a bit during their little coffee meeting, so David offered to have them hang out at the Jacobs-Plumber-De La Guerra apartment for the night for some time where they can actually get something done rather than sit around and talk while drinking coffee.

“What do you mean, ‘ugh’? Don’t all college students love doing their homework every day of the week?” David tried to suppress a smile and say it as seriously as he could, but he then took a glance at Jack who was giving him a look. David let himself smile at it, and soon Jack was smiling too.

Jack sat back up and grabbed his laptop, looking over his assignment again. He scrolled down, then back up, then closed his laptop. “Davey, I can’t do it. Homework will kill me before the end of the semester.”

David smiled at the nickname. It was a little silly, and a little childish, but David never really had a nickname before. Well, that was a little bit of a lie. People sometimes called him Dave, which he doesn’t mind, but most people always went with David. Jack started calling him Davey pretty early on, like it was obvious that he would have a nickname and he would be called by it. He’s not heard ‘David’ from Jack in a while, except for when Jack would play stern. The nickname was nice to hear every day.

“Stupid stunts will probably kill you before the homework will.” David corrected.

“You weren’t even there for any of my stunts! You can’t say anything- you have no proof!”

“I have heard Crutchie tell you to not jump from the top of the stairs to the bottom of the stairs too many times for you to say that I have no proof you do stupid stunts.”

“Davey, those are jokes.” Jack leaned his head down and pouted his lips slightly. “You believe me, right?”

There was only silence. 

“Davey!” 

David started laughing but tried to focus on his work. “You should be doing your schoolwork. You want to make good grades, don’t you?”

“Only barely.”

Jack, instead of opening his laptop to get back to work, pulled out his phone and began tapping through his notifications. David watched him for a moment- Jack had a neutral face through most of them, then pulled a face looking at one. It was a look short of an audible groan.

“What does that face mean?” David asked, slightly closing his laptop. “What’s up?”

Jack wavered in answering. “Can I send a snap of you to someone real quick?” 

“Yeah sure.” 

Jack faced his phone camera in David’s direction, and David made a peace sign to have something to do with his hands. Just as quickly Jack pointed the camera at David it was gone in a second. 

“What was that for?”

Jack locked his phone and put it on the bed. Then he grabbed his laptop and opened it again. “It’s just my ex-boyfriend trying to hit me up again. A picture of another guy should really send a message that I don’t want him snapping me.”

David’s was at a loss of words, not because of him being used as a cockblock- but rather the word that slipped out of Jack’s mouth.

“Boyfriend?” David asked, without really thinking.

Jack didn’t look up from his laptop. “Yeah, he broke it off last semester to date someone else, but then he wanted to get back together in, like, two weeks. He’s just- it doesn’t matter.” 

David didn’t care about the ex-boyfriend. “I didn’t know you had an ex-boyfriend.”

Jack finally looked up at David. “Yeah, I did.” He paused, “That’s cool, right?”

Then finally David seemed to snap out of whatever haze he was in. “Yeah! Yeah, it’s totally cool. I just didn’t know. I’m gay- so like, it’s totally cool in my book.”

Jack’s smile grew on his face. “Hi gay, I’m bi.”

David shook his head. “That was terrible.”

“But you liked it.”

“Yeah I did.”

Jack didn’t say anything else- and they were left looking at each other. David was thinking that maybe he let Jack see his cards too early. His eagerness with Jack dating men might scare him off, but then again, Jack wasn’t backing down from Davey’s gaze. He even had the corners of his mouth upturned slightly. David wanted to know if they were thinking the same thing, or if he was just overthinking things in his eagerness.

A phone ringing broke their staring contest, and Jack picked his phone back up from where he put it on the bed. He looked at the caller ID.

“It’s Albert.” He told David, then answered the phone. “Hey man, what’s up?”

Jack paused, listening. Then he moved to put the phone on his shoulder as we went back typing on his laptop.

“Yeah, I think I know which office, but let me google it really quick just to make sure. Yeah, it’s the Office for Student Affairs. You can look them up and find where their office is or their phone number. If you can’t find it, just let me know and I’ll text you the link.”

More silence. David could faintly hear Albert’s voice on the line.

“If you need anything else, just call or shoot me a text and I’ll help you the best I can. Yeah, I’ll see you. Bye.”

Jack ended the call and looked back up at David. “He needed help finding the right office on campus.”

David smiled at Jack. “And you’re the man to call?”

“Yeah,” Jack looked down at his phone, then locked it again. “I’m kinda the guy who just knows what to do most times. If someone has a question, it always comes back to me. I like doing it- it’s part of the reason why I wanted to be an RA, you know? Helping people when they need it means more than anything else.”

David shook his head in almost disbelief that the person in front of him was real. The moment between them was gone, but it was replaced with something much fonder. “That’s really cool, Jack.”

“You think so?”

David didn’t respond in words, but just nodded his head at Jack.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> office visits and study time

“It said online their office was here.” Race said, looking at his phone, then looking at the office door name placard. “And it’s what the sign says. I think we’re good to go in.”

Albert didn’t want to wait too long in reporting the professor, and Race was free to walk and talk to the people at the Office of Student Affairs. It’s not that Albert couldn’t do it alone, but rather he didn’t want to do it alone. 

Albert walked into the office, small and cramped. There was a desk with a secretary, and a door on either side of the room, most likely doing to personal offices. The lady at the desk was typing at her computer until she saw Albert and Race walk in. 

“What can I help you with?” 

Albert stood forward. “I need to talk with someone about filing a complaint against a professor.”

The lady nodded her head and stood up to walk to the door on Albert’s left. She opened the door and began talking to whoever was behind it. When they finished, she stood away from the door but left it open. 

“You can talk to Mr. Wiesel about what you need. He’s on the phone, but it’ll only be a minute. Go ahead and wait in his office.”

Albert started walking into the office with Race behind him. The room was a personal office. It had an ‘L’ shaped desk and a heavier set, balding man sitting behind it. There were two chairs in front of the desk and Albert took the one to the left while Race sat in the one on the right. There was a large window that looked out to pedestrian pathways to and from the few buildings surrounding the office. Albert could see students walking past the window.

Mr. Wiesel was on the phone, but he was listening to the other person on the line. Race and Albert met each other’s eyes, then tried to settle more into the chairs. 

“Tell them they can talk to Morris at the other OSA. It’s more of his problem anyway. Okay? Buh-bye.”

Mr. Wiesel hung up the phone and turned to them. “What can I help you boys with?”

Albert sat up in his chair. “I needed to make a report about a professor.” 

“Okay- that’s what I do. What kind of report?”

Albert didn’t know exactly what kind of report it was. What kind of reports did they have? He looked over at Race.

“A professor was making bad comments about Autistic people in front of the class, and in doing so, made fun of him.”

Mr. Wiesel nodded. “Alright then. I’m going to need you to tell me your name, describe to me what happened, then write it all down for our records with your signature. Okay?”

Albert nodded. He went into the story about how he and his friend ‘Patrick’ went into class (it’s always weird calling his friends by their given names) and how the professor was telling the class straight up false things about Autistic people and how everything she said was incorrect and when Albert stood up to her, he and Finch were kicked out of class for the day. 

After he told Wiesel everything, he pulled out a form and an ink pen and handed them both to Albert. He began filling it out with his information- name, student ID number, where he lived on campus, information about the professor, where it happened, then the long empty lines to fill out the details of the incident. 

When Albert was done, he handed back to Wiesel to look it over. 

Wiesel laid it on the desk. “Thank you for coming in. We need people, especially students, to make sure we employ only the people with good character. I will get this filed as soon as possible.”

“Thank you, sir.” Race said, standing up and slinging his backpack over his shoulder. Albert followed his lead and thanked Wiesel as well. 

They left the office. Albert felt a sigh of relief go through him as he finally got that off his chest and to a place where someone could do something about it. As long as something would happen, he could rest easy.

They walked out of the building and were walking on the pedestrian path on the way back to their dorm. It was the one that Albert could see out the window earlier. 

“You can actually see into his office from here.” Albert stopped and looked at the building that they just left out of. He looked at the windows before finding the one Wiesel was in. It was easy to spot because he could see Wiesel in there, reading over a paper. Albert pointed it out to Race. “He’s right there.”

“Yeah, I see him.” 

Albert and Race stood there for a moment, just watching him read over the paper. Then as he ripped the paper up and threw the pieces in a trash can next to his desk.

Albert’s jaw dropped, and with a glance over at Race saw he was the same. “You don’t think that was-“

“No,” Race said. “No, that’s probably something different. He wouldn’t just rip up your complaint like that.”

Albert’s eyes narrowed at the window. “You’re probably right.”

* * *

Sarah was right in saying that David could go in a fair race with Albert and Race. They set up their video game station after they all ate dinner together and it was honestly impressive. Crutchie apparently took Sarah at her word about David’s skills and David was promptly invited to a Mario Kart night in Albert and Race’s dorm with Crutchie.

The boys were cocky about their skills, and David must admit they were really good players. But when David and Crutchie were checked into their dorm and given the controllers, David showed them who they were messing with. 

Crutchie was enjoying every minute of Albert and Race’s defeat. Crutchie himself was an okay player, but nothing on the scale he was playing with. David, however, destroyed Race who typically came in first place, all while using Toadette as his main. All of it made it infinitely more hilarious to Crutchie. 

Race held a tearful goodbye to his first place trophy and promised to get vengeance on his Yoshi. Albert nudged David with a smile, and David felt a little more in place than he did when he woke up in the morning.

* * *

Jojo had missed the library during the summer. Any time she wanted to get anything done, whether it was homework or watching TV, she would always go to the quiet section of the library and do everything she needed and wanted to do. Sometimes she would just wander through the different books and find the ones with interesting titles. Or she would think of a random book that the library had and try to find it without looking up the Library of Congress classification system or looking it up on her phone. Needless to say, Jojo loved the library.

She was also able to go with Spot. He was one of the only people Jojo could stand going to the library with. Spot was no nonsense about his library time; he didn’t come to hang out. He would get all of his work done, then maybe watch a video or take notes. Almost everyone else in their group would go to the library, work for ten minutes, then be up to shenanigans that would most likely get them a noise complaint from a librarian. Needless to say, Jojo and Spot worked well together when they went to the library.

Spot and her were closer than most people realized. For other people, Spot appears to be an island all on his own, until you realize that he has two other roommates, and he’s best friend’s with Race, and he hangs out with Jojo. They talk often, text often, and even though they don’t have classes together, share about professors and homework assignments so much so that they understand the basics of the other’s classes.

It was always an outstanding request between them- one would text the other, _hey, you wanna go to the library?_ and it was almost always a yes. Right now, Jojo and Spot were at their normal table in the quiet section of the library doing their own work. 

However, Jojo wasn’t feeling as peaceful and relaxed as she normally did in the library. 

Last night, while all the roomies were together watching TV, Sarah asked Jojo if she would want to be a part of her sewing practical skills class final which would include Sarah making a couple outfits for Jojo on a theme that they came up with at the beginning of the semester. They were meant to make four to six outfits and photograph them for a final presentation. Jojo said yes without really thinking about it. 

Now it was the next day and she was thinking about it. She was probably thinking about it too much.

Jojo didn’t like her body. It was simple. She thought she was too tall and looked too broad. She dressed to hide the parts of herself she didn’t like without really thinking about it. There was also the part where she’s trans too. That doesn’t help the situation. 

Jojo hasn’t come out since she started college- she hasn’t felt the need to, and no one’s ever said anything to her when she introduces herself as Jojo, she/her. It’s not been her dirty little secret, but it’s just something that she doesn’t want to really bring up. She’s content in who she is, and she’s never had to explain anything.

But now Jojo signed up to be a model for Sarah’s class, and she wants to explain her body, and her situation, but she doesn’t want to have to say it. She wants to put it in everyone’s heads without having the conversation and without it changing anything they already knew about her. 

A paper slid over to Jojo’s hands that were stilled over her keyboard. Jojo looked over at Spot, who was looking at her, then back at the paper on her laptop. There was one line written.

_Hey, you look like you’re stuck in your head right now. What’s up?_

Jojo grabbed her pencil and wrote back. _Nothing. Don’t worry about it._

Spot took the paper, but when he read what was on it, he shook his head.

_It’s not nothing. What’s going on?_

Jojo shook her head at him. She loved Spot, but she didn’t want to have any of that conversation with him right now. She wouldn’t mind talking things out with Spot- but talking things out meant coming out. 

Spot stood up and went behind Jojo’s chair and pulled her out by the sleeve of her shirt. It wasn’t aggressive, but she knew that Spot was serious. Spot’s always serious- but isn’t one to be touchy feely with anything. Jojo followed Spot, and together they moved out of the quiet section of the library to a place where people could talk. Eventually he stopped facing Jojo.

“Look, if you really don’t want to talk about what’s up with you that’s cool. But you’re out of it, and you’re like never out of it. I think that I can talk it through with you because I’ll never talk and spill any beans- and believe it or not I can be a good ear.”

Jojo paused. “I’m just really in my head and it’s not worth making all this fuss about.”

“If it’s in your head it’s worth making a fuss about.”

Jojo took a deep breath. Maybe Spot could be the person she talked to about it. She definitely didn’t want to bring it up to Sarah or Katherine, because she loved them, but she also didn’t want to bring up her thoughts to the person who indirectly caused them. Spot and her are close- if she were to come out to anyone it would be her girl roommates or Spot. 

“Sarah asked me to be a model for her sewing class this semester.” Jojo started. “And I said yes, because I wasn’t even thinking about it, of course I could help. But then I started overthinking it, and I’ll still do it, but I really don’t want Sarah, or anyone really, looking at me and analyzing me- like taking my measurements, or looking at the clothes on my body a critical way. I just didn’t start thinking about all of this stuff.”

Spot nodded his head. “Thanks for telling me. I really appreciate it.”

There was a pause in the conversation. 

“I honestly don’t know what to say. I don’t have those problems, but I want you to know that I think you’re pretty alright, even though I’m gay. And you can talk to me whenever, okay?” 

Jojo tried breathing all the way through, making it deeper and deeper each time. 

“There’s more to it, but heavier than just me not wanting anyone to look at me.” Jojo was waiting to see if Spot wanted to hear more or would drop it. 

Spot looked at her expectantly. Jojo tried to breathe through her anxiety about the situation. Her voice came out as a whisper. “I’m trans.”

Spot’s face went slack. His eyes darted around her face as if they were looking for something. Jojo was holding her breath waiting for his reaction. His face didn’t change.

Suddenly arms were wrapped around her body, and Spot was hugging her. Spot was hugging her? Spot definitely had his arms around her torso, and he was holding her. He was a little shorter than her, so his head was at a good height to rest in the crook of her neck.

Jojo took her arms out of his grasp and hugged him back. Spot wasn’t the kind of person who hugged people. He was actually pretty closed off to anyone who came close. Him hugging her _meant_ something.

“Thank you for telling me. I still think you’re great.” Spot whispered into her hair. 

“Thank you.” She repeated. She pulled away slightly to actually look at Spot. “I’ve been getting so anxious with Sarah’s project and everyone not knowing. I keep thinking that Sarah’s going to find out when she measures me, or when she makes the clothes and sees them on me for the first time. I think she’s going to see that something’s not right.”

Spot didn’t like that explanation. “There’s nothing wrong with you, so there can’t be anything not right.”

Jojo wrote off that comment. “I’m still anxious anyway.” 

“And that’s okay.” Spot released her and coughed trying to cover up that he was affectionate. “Um, we can chill out here, or we can go back to our seats and make sure someone didn’t steal our laptops.”

Jojo took the (forced) change of pace from him. “Yeah, we probably shouldn’t have trusted the people who sit in the quiet section. It’s always the innocent looking ones that cause the most trouble.” 

Spot started walking back into the quiet section where they were sitting before and Jojo followed right behind his footsteps. They got back to their table and saw everything was just as they left it- as it normally happens when someone leaves. Jojo looked at her computer and the work she still had yet to finish and held in a groan. She moved everything to accommodate the way she sat down, and just as she began to move her cursor on the screen, Spot kicked her foot under the table. When she looked up he was staring at his computer. She smiled and kicked him back, making sure she was looking at the computer when he came to glance at her.

Jojo’s coming out was easier than she made it out to be- but that’s only one person. She still had to talk to Sarah.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> family dinner

It still surprised David how often everyone hangs out as a large group. He thought that maybe they were all friends, but for most of the year they just hung out in their little, small circles and they always had friends to go to. That was true, David was finding that everyone did have their smaller circles of the people they hang out with the most, but they also made sure to get together often enough with everybody around to catch up and hang out. 

They made plans to eat dinner in the food court. David didn’t think there was a table big enough for all of them, but it seems like everyone knew the drill when they arrived because everyone went to tables and pushed three of them together to create one large rectangle table. A few people stayed behind to save the table, and others went to go into the lines at the restaurants they have in the food court. There weren’t any amazing options, but there were enough to get some food- and no one ever went to a college campus to get _amazing_ food, did they?

David and Romeo ended up being in line at a sandwich place at the same time. Romeo was in line ahead of him and David made conversation asking how he was.

“I’m doing okay, but I’m getting stressed because I need to find a new job soon.”

“Why, what’s up?”

Romeo turned to the person who was making sandwiches and recited off his order. He turned back to David, “They’re actually replacing my job with software so they don’t have to pay real people anymore which sucks because I actually, like, love my job.”

“What do you do?”

Romeo was telling the worker what he wanted on his sandwich. David waited until he was done. “I’m a notetaker on campus for Deaf and hard of hearing students. It’s hard to focus on the interpreters and take notes at the same time, so they get notetakers as a part of their accommodations through the Student Accommodations Office.”

David nodded. “Okay, how are they replacing you with software?”

“They’re starting to implement a speech to text software for professors to wear rather than pay in-person notetakers; which sucks because the speech to text software isn’t good to begin with, and professors would have to cover the mics or take them off to have private conversations which really isn’t doable with professors not understanding. It’s just not a good time.”

David then began reciting the order for his sandwich. When he was done with his, he turned back to Romeo. “That really sucks. Is no one complaining about how bad the microphones are?”

“Oh yeah they are- but the OSA office isn’t listening. They just want to save money and now I have new bosses and they seem like they don’t really care about individuals.”

Romeo passed off his student ID card to be swiped and charged. David was telling the worker everything he wanted on his sandwich. 

“Hey, save me a good seat?” David asked as Romeo was putting his card back in his wallet.

Romeo smirked at him. “Next to Jack, you mean?”

David stared at Romeo incredulously. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Romeo shook his head and smiled at David. “Nothing. Just so you know, Specs knows you better than you think he does, and I live with Specs which means that I hear all.” He made a gesture to his ears and stepped backwards away from David and back towards the table. 

David finished with his order and went back to the table, with a chair saved for him in between Romeo and Jack who were having a conversation about Romeo’s soon to be lack of a job. 

“Have you ever met the Delancey’s?” Jack nodded his head. “I haven’t even met them this year and I’m getting all these emails from them about how I’m submitting my timesheet wrong or them criticizing me for stuff I’ve never done and I haven’t done in the past two years I’ve worked there. It’s insane. They’re going to run the place to the ground, I swear.”

“Yeah, they aren’t my favorite people in the world right now.”

“I met the Delancey’s before.” David said, pulling out the chair and sliding into the seat. “At least I met one of them. I met Morris, I think? It was before the semester started and I went to get accommodations for class.”

Jack eyed him warily. “How did that go? Because I’ve heard some things from other people, and…” Jack trailed off and tilted his head back.

David shook his head. “They were a little strict about what you needed to get an accommodation. Apparently, they needed my paperwork to be dated within a couple months, and I didn’t get the accommodation. It’s weird because my papers worked just fine at my old school, but I guess there’s just different rules.”

Jack stared a little too hard into his nachos bowl. “They did the same thing to other people I know. Their papers were fine last semester but as soon as the Delancey’s took over their papers weren’t enough. I don’t want to say it’s something to do with the administration, but...” Jack shrugged.

“If the shoe fits.” Romeo finished. Jack nodded along. 

“Hey, are we talking about shitty administration people? I have a story to add.” Race interjected. “Hey, Albo!”

Albert, who was in the middle of a conversation with Katherine, turned to face Race and looked at him expectantly. 

“Tell our dear friends about the Weasel that works in the Office of Student Affairs!”

Albert’s eyes shot open with recognition. “Oh my God! Yeah! So, Race and I went to the Student Affairs office to report a professor who was saying some shitty things about Autistic people and kicked me out of her class for correcting her, right? So we go there and the guy acts totally helpful, walks me through all the paperwork, has me sign a statement, the whole shebang. Then Race and I leave and we’re walking outside his office and I’m like ‘Race, look up there, you can see inside his office!’”

“Totally true- you could clearly see into his office.” 

“Yeah! And we just met with the man and as we’re looking into his office, he’s ripping up the form I wrote up with my statement on it and everything! Just ripped it in half-“ Albert did the gesture with his two fists and pulled them apart in opposite directions. “And he threw it in the trash can. I was supposed to hear back from them with a confirmation that my form has been filed and, you know, they’re doing shit about it, but I haven’t heard anything from anyone.”

“Are you serious?” Mush asked, who was having a conversation with Jojo and Finch but got caught in Albert’s story.

“Yeah! So like, we have too many shitty admin members working here, if all that with the Accommodations office is true too.”

Jack took a deep breath. Just looking at him, David could see gears turning in his head and could see the stress start to form. Jack always is the guy to turn to. “Yeah, this is really not good. I might need to talk to someone in Student Government about it and see what they say.”

David took his hand and placed it on Jack’s wrist. He didn’t know what else to do- he didn’t always have the words to comfort him, and they were all together with everyone they knew. Jack looked up at David and smiled at him. It made David smile in return.

“I can talk to someone at the newspaper and see what’s up with the Delancey’s and that guy at Student Affairs.” Katherine spoke up. “If there’s something there then I bet we could find it. We always have freshmen who are wanting to do something.”

Nodding, Jack continued speaking. “Yeah, that sounds good. Let me know if you find anything.”

Katherine nodded, and it was silent for a moment. Mush started back his conversation with Jojo and Finch; Spot and Race started talking amongst themselves; Albert, Katherine, Sarah, and Specs all started a new conversation. David asked Crutchie about how his classes were going and it started him on a tangent about this freshman girl in one of his Parks and Rec classes who was apparently acting very petty in his class. Romeo added things about his own classes with one of the new professors in the sign language department who was arrested not five years before for drug distribution charges.

* * *

Race got a text on his phone. He was in the middle of the conversation with Katherine and Albert about something that happened at her work. He looked at the notification. The name was just the dog emoji, so he took the phone from the table into his lap. He turned down his brightness and opened the app.

_**Spot:** You wanna come over tonight? _

Race listened to the conversation happening on the other side of him and heard Jojo and Spot talking about something with her class and a professor. He tuned back to his conversation and replied to the message.

_**Race:** Sure, after I get back to the dorm I’ll head your way?_

He locked his phone and put it back on the table. Race took a deep breath trying to get his thoughts to slow down long enough to think them. Yes, he did want to see Spot tonight. He loved seeing Spot and he liked Spot, but it’s hard to be with him when all Race can think about how he wants to date Spot- for real. Race actually likes him. Race has had part of Spot, but not all of him. He has the part of Spot that he’s willing to give. 

Race knows he’ll enjoy himself tonight. As soon as he gets into Spot’s apartment and they go into his room it’ll be great. They’ll hang out for a bit, then Spot will lean over and kiss Race and their night will go from there. As soon as Race wakes up in the morning for class he’ll grab his backpack and shove on his shoes and feel bad all the way to his statistics class. He’s stuck in the loop- and he can’t say anything about it, because he doesn’t want to come on the other side of it without Spot at all.

* * *

Albert saw Race leave the conversation in his head. It’s he could tell from being friends with Race for so long, and with the text notification that popped up on his phone. He continued to talk, but watched as Race read the message, sort of turn his head to Spot, then respond. Albert filed it in his head as another piece to the puzzle.

* * *

Everything was soon back to normal- everyone was having a normal conversation, but the combination of all of their voices made it loud. They were inside the food court and the sound echoes off of everything, so they seemed a lot louder than they actually were. 

When they finally finished their meals, they cleaned up their tables, moved them back to where they were originally. Each person went off in their own groups back to their dorms or to their apartments. David was about to follow Sarah, Katherine, and Jojo to their cars in the commuter parking lot, when someone grabbed his arm.

“Hey, Davey, you want to walk with me to my dorm?”

David looked at the hand on his arm, then smiled up at Jack. “Yeah, sure.”

He started following Jack in the opposite direction of Katherine, Sarah, and Jojo. They turned around to see where David went and David made eye contact with them then shifted his eyes to Jack. Katherine gave him a knowing smile and Sarah gave him a thumbs up.

David turned back to Jack and they walked to Jack’s dorm, continuing the conversations they were having at dinner. 

“You’ll have to lead the way. I’m learning campus, but I only know the area around the library.” 

Jack laughed. “My tour did nothing for you? Was all my effort wasted?”

“No, it wasn’t wasted because I had a good time with you, but I don’t remember anything from it except for the secret tunnel in the science building.” 

Jack led them away from the food court and took a left following a road that ran through campus. “Okay, yeah, the tunnel system is really memorable. Just wait until you actually go down there, it’s really cool. You just have to watch for the steam because they release it and you could get seriously hurt going down there.”

“Oh wait, did Spot do that? I thought I heard something about him getting second degree burns from going down there.”

Jack laughed. “Yeah, he did. He wasn’t actually hurt too bad because he was already leaving when it started but he did get a burn on his arm and he was a little bitch baby about it.”

They continued walking and talking. They made a right turn. Jack kept brushing his arms against David’s as they walked.

David had the suspicion that Jack maybe liked him back. There wasn’t any concrete evidence, but David just had the feeling. From how much time they spend together to how their eyes will meet and Davey feels like they’re on the same page, and wanting to walk back to his dorm together when he could have walked with Crutchie. David thinks it’s all leading up to something but he doesn’t want to make the first move. He could be wrong. He could mess everything up. 

Jack does look good tonight. He isn’t any more dressed up than normal, but he’s wearing a white tee shirt that has a logo from a local restaurant that David’s heard him mention a few times before and how they need to go there. He always looked at ease too, but especially when he was on campus. When they went on a ‘tour’ Jack seemed so much in his element. He was taking little shortcuts and showed David all the little gems that no one would ever find or know about. Jack was smiling and telling stories about every place he could think of. 

Jack had that ease now too. David really enjoyed being in his company.

They made a left turn. 

“That’s actually my dorm up there.” Jack pointed down the road and there was a building taller than the rest around it with a road and a small parking lot in front of it. 

“You’re lovely home.” David said.

“My pride and joy,” Jack continued. “The place where I live, work, and stress about tests.”

David asked him about work and Jack told a story about another RA who had to deal with a knife fight on their night and Jack heard about the next day. He said the guy hadn’t been kicked out yet but it would happen soon.

“Honestly he’s been causing trouble all year and we’re not even at midterms yet, so we are all excited for the day he moves out and we can all rest for once.”

They walked up to the front door and stood for a moment before Jack went inside.

“You’re going to have to tell me where the commuter parking lot is, because we just went and did a bunch of turns and I don’t know where it is.”

Jack took a little step closer to David; their arms were back brushing against each other. He gestured behind David to the road that went behind Jack’s building. “You’ll follow this road and it’s right there, not too far of a walk.”

David looked down the road and could see the area where he parked, but then something popped into his head. “Wait, the parking lot is down there?”

Jack nodded.

“That means the dining hall is down there?” David pointed to where he thought the dining hall was from where he thought it would be. Earlier he walked from his car to the dining hall by following the road. He passed Jack’s dorm without even knowing it. When they walked back, they did a bunch of turns and went a completely different way. “We took a lot of turns when we could have just walked straight down the road?”

Jack looked like a kid who was caught in a lie. “Yeah, we could have. I just wanted to spend more time with you before you dropped me off.” 

David could feel his face go blank. Jack wanted to spend more time with him. He took a longer route to spend more time with him. David’s face softened. 

“Really?” He asked, still unsure. 

“Yeah.” Jack shifted his feet a little bit. “Actually, I wanted to ask you something.”

“Go for it.” David's voice was a lot calmer than he was on the inside. That sounded like he wanted to ask David on a date, right? It wasn’t just his mind making something up.

“I wanted to ask if you would go on a date with me this Saturday.”

David smiled, both out of disbelief and joy. “Yeah, I would love to go on a date with you.”

Jack’s face went slack. “Seriously?”

David nodded. “Yeah, I seriously want to go on a date with you.” David rethought Jack’s slack face. “Wait, did you not want me to say yes?”

Jack shook his head, and his face went back to normal, except with a big smile. “No! I wanted you to say yes, I just wasn’t sure if you would or not. But you did; say yes, I mean.”

“That I did. So I guess we have a date on Saturday.”

“Yes, we do.” Jack took his hand and gave David’s arm a light squeeze. He turned to the door and used his fob to get the door open. He turned around and met David’s eyes. “Bye Davey.”

“Bye Jack.”

Jack turned around and went into the building, David could see him greet the desk worker before going down the hallway, probably back to his room.

* * *

Jack went for his door handle and, when it turned without resistance, just opened the door to his room. He could hear his and Crutchie’s TV on and he saw Crutchie on his bed, Specs in Jack’s chair, Romeo was sitting on the floor with his back on the wall, and Race was laying on his stomach on Jack’s top bunk. Their eyes were on the TV. 

“Hey guys.” Jack greeted, then kicking off his shoes by the door.

“Hey Jack.” Crutchie said, glancing over. He took the remote and paused the TV (which looked like it was on Sirens) and turned his torso to face Jack. “So did you do it?”

“Do what?”

“Finally ask Davey out.” Romeo answered. “Because honestly, we were all waiting for you to and a stroll outside at dusk seems like a prime time to do it.”

Jack moved and sat down on the floor creating a little circle of him, Specs, Romeo, and Crutchie. “How did you know I wanted to ask Davey out?”

“Because you’re so obvious, dude.” Race added from the bunk.

“And you told me that you liked him.” Crutchie said. “So, did you do it?”

Jack shrugged sheepishly. He did not expect to be called out so well by his friends. “Yeah, we have a date on Saturday.”

“Good man!” Specs exclaimed. 

Jack looked at all of his friends in his room, then mentally did a headcount. “Wait a minute, how did you all get in the building? Crutchie’s only allowed to have two checked in guests at a time.”

A mischievous grin fell across all four people in the room. Jack shook his head at them. “Never mind, I don’t want to know. I’m your RA and if I didn’t know about it, I can’t get you in trouble for it.”

Race moved off his stomach and climbed down the end of the bed. “I would love to stay, but I do have a prior engagement so I must bid you men ado.”

Race found his shoes and shot the guys a last goodbye. Jack climbed up onto his bed and took Race’s place.

“So are we watching more Sirens or do y’all want to play video games?”


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> saturdays are for the boys... (and girls and nb pals)

It was Saturday. Saturday meant that Race worked on absolutely no homework and took the day off to relax and take a break. Today for his Saturday, he’s going to bother Spot at work.

He grabbed his backpack and made his way to the library where he knew Spot would be working the front desk. When he walked in, Spot was on his computer looking at the screen. Race made his way over and as he got close Spot looked up and saw him. He rolled his eyes in the way that he does when he almost smiles but doesn’t.

“Hey, I need help finding a book.” Race started. “I don’t know the title, or the Author’s name, or the ISBN, but I know it’s about doing your mom. Can you point me where that would be?”

Spot glared at him. “Very funny, Race.”

“I thought so,” Race said with a shrug. “What are you up to?”

“I was just watching TV,” Spot turned the computer screen a little bit so Race could see the paused TV show. “What are you doing here?”

“Bothering you. I didn’t have anything else to do.” 

“Okay. I’m gonna see if I can count books today so we can hang out.” 

Race smiled at him. “Okay.” 

Spot left the counter for a second to go off to ask if he could count books. It made Race feel good that Spot wanted to hang out. Sometimes Race feels like he’s bothering Spot wanting to hang out often, but Spot’s taking the initiative to hang out with him at work. It’s nice, Race can get in his own head, especially about Spot. 

“Yeah, I can count books.” Spot said, coming back. “I just have to wait for one of my other coworkers to get back so they can cover the front desk and we can count books.”

“We? Bold of you to assume I’ll help you.”

“If we’re going to hang out, then you’re helping me count books. I could send you on your way so I can go back to watching TV in peace.”

“But you love me too much to do that.” The words slipped out of Race’s mouth before his mind could catch up to them. He mentally cringed. He hated saying stuff like that; it’s because Spot could easily deny it. He could easily say that he doesn’t even like Race. 

“You just make me hate this job less.”

“You know what? I’ll take it.”

* * *

“I’m glad to finally have a day off. It feels like I’m working all the time.” Kath shook her hair out a ponytail and fixed the purse on her shoulder. 

“It’s because you work all the time, babe.” Sarah didn’t look up from the fabrics she was perusing. 

Jojo was looking at the fabrics too, but she wasn’t being as careful as Sarah was. They were shopping for fabrics that Sarah would use on her fashion project. She wanted Jojo there to make sure she liked the fabric and the feel of it and Katherine joined to make it a girls’ day, which they don’t do as often now that David lives with them.

Jojo did love her roommates, and it’s good to spend time out of the apartment and off campus. 

“Ooh, Jojo what about this one?” Sarah pulled off a bolt of fabric from the top organizer and held it out to her. It was a nice cornflower blue color, almost sheer from how thin the fabric was. Jojo took the end of the fabric on the bolt between her fingers and felt it. It was soft to the touch.

“Yeah, I like that one.”

“I think it’d go really well with your skin tone and it fits the theme really well, so I think I might use some of this for a dress.”

“Isn’t that fabric too thin for a dress?” Jojo asked skeptically.

“Oh yeah, there will be an under layer of lining, definitely; this will just be the top layer.” 

“What’s the theme again?” Kath asked, taking the fabric into her own fingers to feel it herself.

“I got the combo of _springtime_ and _god/goddess_ , so I’m going to lean into, like, Persephone and Demeter, stuff like that.”

“Okay, yeah that color would work really well for that.” 

They ended up walking around the rest of the store, browsing but not really looking for anything. Sarah got the fabric she needed for her first dress, but everything else was more to spend and waste time together. Sarah spent some time looking at the fake flowers, coming up with more ideas for what she could do with her assignment. Kath took her time looking at all the nice planners and journals even though she said she had so many that she hasn’t used yet. Jojo spent her time looking at all the room décor, even though she doesn’t need any of it.

When they left the store, they all decided it was time to eat. They went inside a fast-food place (when they all didn’t really need to be eating fast food or spending money) and ate burgers and drank shakes. 

Jojo doesn’t go out a lot. She spends time at the apartment, and she goes to class and work on campus, and she spends time with Spot or their other friends on campus. She doesn’t really go out, which typically is just her style, but it was good to spend some time with her friends without having to worry about school or work or coming out. She just got to spend some time with her friends.

* * *

David was both incredibly nervous and extremely excited for his date with Jack. He was nervous because he’s going on a date with one of his friends who he liked. He was excited because he’s going on a date with one of his friends who he liked. David hoped everything would go well, because he did like Jack, but if it didn’t go well, he hoped they could stay good friends.

Jack said he had a chill date planned, which was good by David’s terms. He didn’t want to go on an exciting, high intensity date for their first one. He just wanted to spend time with Jack in a new, romantic context. 

Jack picked him up at around three o’clock. David sat in his front seat. Jack gave him the aux cord and asked him about his day. 

Davey said that he spent the day hanging out in the apartment while the girls went out for the day. Jack said that he spent the morning with Crutchie at the library for a little bit so they both could get work done but ended up just hanging out and making jokes the entire time. Davey told him that’s just about how it goes when anyone goes to the library with Jack.

_“It’s okay. We loved spending time with you anyway.”_

Jack eventually went into downtown and parallel parked on Main Street. “So, I know you’re new in town, so I’m going to take you to a couple of my favorite places here. If I’m not on campus, then I’m at one of these places.” 

“Okay.”

Jack opened his car door and David followed suit. Jack went down the street lined with different shops, businesses, and restaurants. At the end of the street there was a corner shop with a large sign that read ‘ _Denton’s_ ’. Jack opened the door for David and David was met with the strong smell of coffee.

“Have you worn a shirt from this place?” David asked. “I remember that logo from something.”

Jack nodded. “Oh yeah, I have a bunch of shirts from here. The first year when I moved, I worked here. I still come here way too much.”

The coffee shop had sage walls with wood accents everywhere. There were leather-looking chairs placed all around the room in different configurations, along with higher, bar height chairs and tables near the wall. There was a set of stairs that went up to a second level that David couldn’t see up to. 

At the counter there were the typical machines that every coffee shop needed to make their coffee, along with a large blackboard that had the menu written on it, probably by hand. A man maybe ten or fifteen years older than them and a younger girl around their age were behind the counter.

Jack took hold of David’s hand slightly and led him to the counter. “Bry, my main man, how have you been doing?”

The man behind the counter looked up from the pitcher he was cleaning. His eyes light with recognition. “There he is, my dear Jacqueline. I’ve been doing okay- I miss having you come in and buy something every day, I think we’ve seen a real decrease in revenue.”

“Yeah, I’ve just gotten busy with school.” Jack turned and gestured to David. “Bryan, this is Davey. Davey, this is Bryan.”

“Hiya, Davey.” Bryan greeted, letting his eyes glance downward to Jack holding his hand, which was tingling from the contact. “What can I get the two of you?”

“What would you like Davey?” Jack asked. 

Davey looked over the menu and got his eyes caught something he knew he liked and got it. Jack ordered a caramel latte and sat down in a comfortable chair that was behind a bookshelf so that Bryan and the other girl couldn’t see them from behind the counter. The chairs were comfortable and felt like David could just sink into them.

“I can see why you love this place. It seems so nice.” David said, still looking around at all the décor and the books on the bookshelf. 

“Yeah. This was the first place I applied to work when I first moved here. I really liked this place and I was friendly with Bryan and some of the other workers. It really helped me plant my roots here, and now I know how to make every single drink here, so that’s a bonus.”

“That’s really nice.” David knew that Jack loved this place: this town, this campus, everything. He loved his friends too, and he could make friends with anyone. It made Davey think about how he hasn’t ever loved a place like Jack does. Jack cares so much, and he has pride. It’s actually kind of beautiful. “You really love this place? Campus and town.”

Jack seemed shy now. “Yeah, I do. I moved here full stop freshman year, and even though I’ve only lived here for a little over two years, it’s my home. The town I was raised in- I just knew I couldn’t stay there forever. I made my home here and haven’t looked back.”

David thought about it- his last college town wasn’t a home; it was just the place where he was going to school. He would go home and visit often, but even then, it didn’t feel like home because after he and Sarah left it was just his parents and his brother, Les. Their whole dynamic changed, and David felt like it was visiting a home that changed too much since he left. The most at home he felt was before college and then living with Sarah, Katherine, and Jojo.

“It’s nice that you have that home here. I didn’t feel that way about my old school- I just sort of lived there. But you talking about this kind of stuff makes me want to make a home.”

“I sort of decided to do it when I got here and it’s honestly one of the best decisions I made.”

Jack thought that Davey would just like to talk and hang out for their first date, more of what they do on their day to day but with places that Davey would like and with it being explicitly a date. Denton’s was a place that was certain when Jack was thinking of places to take David. Considering that they hang out and get coffee all the time anyway, Jack thought it was a safe bet. 

Davey seemed to be enjoying himself so far; he sank deeper in the chair every minute they stayed in Denton’s. He and Davey kept talking while they finished their drinks. Jack just found himself looking over at Davey for long stretches of time- just looking, taking advantage of being able to look at him without feeling like he would get caught or Davey would find out that he liked him. Davey does know Jack likes him, and Davey likes Jack too.

Jack is just happy that Davey came here. He came to this school and moved in with Katherine and Sarah and Jojo. He was willing to hang out with their hodge-podge group of friends, and he actually got along with them. Davey joined a spot that they (Jack) didn’t know they were missing.

Davey finally caught Jack staring. “What are you looking at?”

Jack kept his eyes on Davey’s. “Just you. I think you’re cute, and I was thinking about how you got here and fit in so well.”

“I’m definitely glad I came here,” Davey put his mug down on the little table between them. “I was really scared because I was changing schools last minute and I didn’t know what I was going to do. I expected to go to class and be holed up in my room at the apartment all the time. I didn’t think I’d be making friends or hanging out with people a lot of the time.”

“You came here because you didn’t get into the program at your old school, right?”

“Yeah.” Davey wrung his fingers together. “I went to school and planned on joining the education program, and I was doing really well in classes, got close with the professors, and made some friends. I applied last year, my sophomore year, and even with my all As, my 4.0 GPA, and letters of recommendation, I didn’t get in.” Davey looked sad as he talked. Jack slid his hand over the table to put it on top of Davey’s. “I didn’t really have a back-up plan so this summer I applied to a few colleges and looked at changing my major to something different, but I got accepted here, and Sarah said that she and Katherine wanted to move into the same room and they would have an open room to rent out. I just sort of came.”

Jack separated Davey’s hands from the other and interlocked their fingers. “That sounds really hard. I don’t want to sound like a cliché or anything but I know that I’m glad I met you, and if you hadn’t moved in with the girls I probably wouldn’t have ever met you.”

Davey gave Jack a small smile. “I probably would have met you at your all’s graduation. I would have come here for Sarah.”

“That’s way too far away!” Jack replied, shaking his head at the idea. “Now I get two whole years with you than I would have. We have the time to make memories!”

“Memories like us getting stuck in the old elevator in the library you just _had_ to use?”

“C’mon! That old elevator is great because it’s a service elevator and no one ever uses it! It’s cool and no one knows about it.”

“No one ever uses it because apparently it gets stuck when poor, unsuspecting juniors are inside of it.” Davey argued.

“That was one time!” 

They were back to laughing, nothing that Jack wouldn’t expect from Davey. When they eventually finished their coffees and convinced Bryan that no they didn’t need anything to eat because they were going to eat later, they were out of the shop. 

“Now, I have a feeling that you might like this next place. It’s literally my home away from home.” Jack went back down the street to a few stores down. Davey paused by the car, thinking they were going to leave, but Jack continued down the street and Davey followed him.

Jack opened the door for Davey again, this time at a little bookstore that he frequented.

Davey walked into the store and his eyes became brighter in realizing it was a bookstore. He walked into the front which was full of ceiling high shelves of books. There was even a second level that Davey couldn’t see all of yet. “Your home away from home is a bookstore?”

“Yes, it is. Less because of the books and more because of the company.” Jack grinned and called up to the second floor. “Miss Medda! You have some company!”

Davey looked a little startled at Jack, who just smirked at him and waited for the familiar voice.

“Jack Kelly!” Her voice exclaimed! Jack couldn’t see her yet but could hear she was on the ground floor with them. Then suddenly she appeared behind the counter in front of them. She instantly moved from behind it and Jack met her halfway with a hug. “You haven’t seen me in weeks!”

“I’m sorry, Miss Medda,” Jack took a deep breath in her arms. “I’ve been busy with school.”

Medda let him go and gave him a stern look in the eye. “Well you best be doing some of your homework here, Mister. I worry about ya if you aren’t around.”

Medda’s eyes met the boy behind Jack’s shoulder. Her eyebrows raised and her ears perked up. She took her long, manicured nails and brushed a piece of her bangs behind her ear. “You didn’t mention you brought someone by.”

“I said you had company.” Jack walked back towards Davey and took his hand. “Davey, this is Medda. Medda, this is Davey. He’s a bit of a bookworm like you, and I knew that he had to come here and look around.”

“Is that so? Well, anyone on Jack’s arm is a friend of mine. Take a look around and if you have any questions you can let me know, although this man knows about this store almost as much as I do, so he’ll probably have the answer. I’ll be in the back doing some inventory, so you know where I’ll be.”

Medda shot Jack a look that was clearly understood and she made her way back into the back room of the store. Jack turned to Davey. “You have all of this store to look around in. Tell me where you want to start, and I’ll take you there.” 

“Can we start with thriller novels?” 

Jack led Davey to the thriller novels and as Davey looked around Jack followed him, and they talked about books and other things. Davey looked like he was even more comfortable in Medda’s place than he did in Denton’s. His fingers on his right hand would travel spines and he read each book individual, but his left hand hadn’t left Jack’s. Jack was happy to be led around a store he knew like the back of his hand. 

Eventually they went to the upper level which was situated to have couches and chairs for people to lounge and rest in. Davey and Jack ended up sitting next to each other (their legs were curled into the couch and touching each other) and talking some more.

“How did you get to know Miss Medda?” Davey asked, playing with the fingers on Jack’s hand.

“I was looking for a book for Crutchie’s birthday and I saw this place on Google. It was right in the beginning of the year and I came here and Medda was literally the kindest person I ever met. I saw that there were couches up here and I asked her if I could do homework up here even if I didn’t buy anything. She told me that I was allowed here anytime and for any reason. Even if I wanted to sit around and talk to her, I could. It was before I had all these friends and I just started working at Denton’s a few doors down.

“It was easy for me to just come here and talk with her all time. And one day, I just had the worst day. I can’t even remember everything that happened, but I came here and Medda just- I don’t know how to describe it, but she just managed to comfort me. This is kind of like what other people do when they go home and see their family, instead I come here and help out around the store. It’s nice to come here and just forget about everything happening sometimes. I refinished some of the new bookshelves over the summer. And you see that painting over there?”

Jack pointed over to the painting on the wall above the other couch. It was a nice desert landscape with mesas and small bits of green vegetation spread all over the ground. “I painted that one for her as a birthday present last year.”

Davey’s eyes widened and looked at the picture closer than he did before. “You painted that?” Jack nodded. Davey let go of Jack’s hands and stood up to walk across the room. He stood close to it and inspected it a little. “Jack, this is so good!’

“Thanks,” Jack got up and stood a little bit behind Davey. He didn’t think his art was anything that people would really admire. He thought it looked like paintings you would find at antique malls and flea markets, but other people seemed to like it, so he would take the time to paint things for people. He said _thanks_ now because after years of saying ‘ _it’s just a bunch of colors’_ he stopped wanting to have the argument over his skill. Whenever Jack had his way with subjects, he always tended to go back to paint the Southwest. “I actually have an art minor. I don’t think I’ve ever brought it up before.”

“No, you haven’t, but that’s incredible. I need to see more of your art immediately.”

They sat back down, and Jack pulled out his phone to show him some of the things he’s drawn and painted both for class and for himself. Davey was surprised with every single piece Jack showed him. It felt weird; Jack was a person who did art- he doodled, he sketched, he painted- but almost everyone he knew personally knew that about him. It feels new (it feels _nice_ ) for someone to be interested in the little parts of him. 

“I love this one,” David said, settling his swiping fingers on one piece. Jack leaned over and looked at the piece. It was one he did for his intro to drawing class back his freshman year; the drawing was of a bunch of origami cranes, all shaded and detailed so you could see all the folds and how the light hit each of them specifically. “You’re really good at drawing.”

“It’s just a bunch of lines.” Jack dismissed. “Anyone could do it if they practiced.”

“Nah, I couldn’t do this, even if I’d practiced. You’re talented. Let me compliment you.” 

When Jack looked up from his phone, he saw that Davey was already looking at him. Davey had this soft smile on his face that Jack couldn’t help but return. Their faces were close together too, from them almost sitting on top of each other from how close they are. Jack couldn’t help but glance down at Davey’s lips. 

Jack leaned in and Davey met him halfway in a kiss. It was chaste and soft, and Jack couldn’t help but to smile. Jack moved his hand to Davey’s knee, and he felt Davey’s hand touch his face, almost holding him in place. Jack was getting comfortable and was on his way to deepen their kiss when his phone rang.

They pulled away; Davey was smiling, and Jack got his phone from between their laps. He looked at the contact and it was Blink.

“It’s one of my coworkers,” He said, then took the call.

_“Hey man, are you in your room?”_

“Uh, no. I’m off campus, what’s up?”

_“Well, you’re the secondary on call and I need some help with a situation with one of your residents.”_

Jack would have groaned if he weren’t on the phone where they could hear him. “Is it Eli?”

_“Nail on the head.”_

“Yeah, I can be there in, like, five minutes. I’m just downtown.”

_“Thanks man, I’ll see you in a bit.”_

Jack hung up the phone and looked back at Davey. “There’s something happening at the dorm and I’m the other person on call to handle situations on the weekend. Do you wanna come hang out at the dorm until it gets done? We can order food and watch some TV later? I planned on taking you to this nice local place to eat, but-“

“That sounds good.” Davey interrupted. “I still haven’t seen your room yet, and I’m curious. And pizza sounds good, I haven’t had any in forever.”

“Are you sure?” Jack fiddled his phone in his hands. “It’s not the way I wanted our date to end.”

“I’m sure. You have your job to do- I’m not going to stop you.” Davey stood up and offered a hand to Jack. “C’mon, you said you’d be there in five minutes, I don’t want you to run late.”

Jack took Davey’s hand and stood up to face him. “You’re the best.”

“I know,” Davey said with a shrug. 

* * *

Once Jack got back to the dorm, another RA was waiting at the desk in the lobby waiting for him and to take him to where whatever the incident was happening. Jack got David checked into the building and walked him to his room to hang out in. David only got to look around a little bit before Jack was at his door, decorated with his and Crutchie’s name and random decorations and photos.

Jack pulled at the door and when it didn’t resist, just opened the door. Crutchie was at his desk, typing on his laptop. When he heard the door creak he turned around. 

“Hey dude, I thought you were going to be out for a little while longer?” Jack opened the door a little wider for David to come in. “Hey Davey.”

David gave him a little wave as Jack explained the situation. “I was on call today and I got a call about a certain resident that shall remain nameless that I now have to deal with, so Davey’s gonna hang out here until I get done, if that’s cool?”

Crutchie nodded. “Yeah, totally cool. Is it Eli again? Because I thought I heard some yelling down the hallway earlier.”

Jack sighed. That was a good thing to hear he was coming into. “I can neither confirm nor deny that it was Eli.” He tilted his head and gave Crutchie a look. “But I have to go before someone actually gets hurt. Have fun!”

Jack left the room and David and Crutchie were left to their own devices. 

“You wanna watch some TV? We’ve got Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and HBO Max.” Crutchie wheeled himself across the room to face the TV. 

“How can you afford all those?” David asked, moving to sit down in the nice chair that was the only available seating in the room besides at their desks. “Sarah and I are still mooching off our parents for Netflix.”

“We don’t pay for all of this. Race gave us all his parent’s Netflix password. Jack and I pay for Hulu and our shared Spotify Premium account with his student email. Katherine has Amazon Prime, and Finch has HBO Max because he loves Game of Thrones.”

“Okay, you can put something on, I don’t really mind.” Crutchie switched onto Netflix and put it on a crime show that David didn’t know the name of. Then he got his laptop and set it on his lap to continue typing.

“What are you working on?”

Crutchie typed something out while speaking slowly- as if he didn’t want to mix up the words he was typing with the words he was saying. “Did you see the email about the new construction zone and how they put a new pedestrian path around some of the buildings?”

David nodded. He didn’t really _read_ it, he skimmed it but he never really went to that side of campus, so he didn’t really think anything of it.

“Well, the pedestrian path through the construction isn’t accessible for my wheelchair at all. It takes an extra twenty minutes for me to use a path that goes completely around the construction. I’ve been trying to find someone to file a report with or to talk to.”

“Wouldn’t that be the accommodations office?”

“Typically it would be,” Crutchie said, “But with what we were all talking about at dinner with how the accommodations office has been acting lately-“

“And the Office of Student Affairs.” David added.

“Yeah! And them! I emailed but I don’t know if anything will be taken seriously so I’ve been emailing the student government trying to do something but they’ve heard everything from Jack and I about everything else and they aren’t super optimistic.”

David shrugged. It honestly sucked when people are doing wrong, and they have another person in charge of who gets to hear about it. “I wouldn’t be either. I wouldn’t know what else to do unless we got someone’s attention that had a little more power.”

“Or just influence, but as of now we don’t have any ideas. And for my classes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I have to either leave thirty minutes early or I have to use my crutches, and I hate having to use my crutches for walking all the way across campus.” Crutchie gestured to the door and when David looked, he saw a set of forearm crutches. _Huh_ , he thought _, that explains the name Crutchie._

“Yeah, that sucks. I wonder if we could do something like a-“

The door swung open and in walked Jack, he closed the door. “Crutchie, at the end of the year when they ask me if I want to renew my position, remind me to not take it and run for the hills.”

“I won’t!” Crutchie said with a smile. “How bad?”

“Two words: knife fight.”

“Yikes.” David said. “At least it was a good reason to interrupt our date.”

Jack came and sat on Crutchie’s bed. “There isn’t a good reason to interrupt our date. I just want that kid kicked out of university housing. I’m just glad that Blink said he’d do all the paperwork, so I don’t have to.” Jack took a breath. “What are you all up to?”

“We’re talking about the pedestrian path,” David said. “How everything having to do with accessibility at this school sucks right now.”

“What’s up with the pedestrian path?”

Crutchie went on his spiel again, explaining how the path wasn’t accessible and how it added a lot more time to his way to class. Jack asked more about the path itself and how it wasn’t accessible, and Crutchie explained where the stairs were and how he couldn’t get through some of the paths with his wheelchair. Jack had a thoughtful look on his fav by the end of it. 

“When everyone’s together again we should probably all talk about it. I think with all our heads and all our connections we’ll have an idea to do something. As of right now, my brain is fried and I want to get back to our date.”

“Which is where I’ll be leaving,” Crutchie said with a smile. “I’m going over to Albert and Race’s and we’re gonna crank out some homework. Text me if you want me to spend the night there.”

“Charles, I love you, but get out.” 

Crutchie had a broad grin on his face. He put his laptop in his backpack and grabbed a jacket before leaving. Jack looked over at David, and for the rest of the night before David went home, they finished their date with pizza and Netflix.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> back to school/birthday bash

“So, it was basically the best first date of your life?” Specs asked, sitting at David’s kitchen table. Specs came over on Sunday so they could hang out and so Specs could film a video for one of his sign language classes without having to worry about random dorm or library noise- he also commented that the lighting was also better in the Jacobs-Plumber-De La Guerra apartment than it was anywhere else. Eventually they got on the topic of Jack and David’s date.

“It was basically the best first date of my life.” David confirmed, still looking over a mock lesson plan that he has due by the end of the night. 

“That’s good. I’m glad it went well. I was afraid of what would happen if it didn’t.”

“Well, don’t plant that in my head. I have this homework to worry about first.” David, being nosy, asked Specs his own question. “What about you and Romeo, huh?’

“What about me and Romeo?” Specs asked, a little too quickly.

“Okay, so we can drop the act that you don’t like him at all and that you have no idea why we see that you two are perfect for each other? I want to talk about it seriously.”

Specs groaned and put his forehead on the table. “Okay, so yeah I like him, but nothing’s going to happen, so I’m not getting my hopes up.”

David shook his head, although Specs couldn’t see it. “Dude, I think if you asked him out, he would say yes.”

“I am not willing to take that chance.” Spec’s voice was a little muffled.

“You guys sleep with your beds pushed together. That has to mean something to you.”

Specs shot his head up. “We’re doing that to save space in the room! I need the room to do my stretches for my dance classes!”

David rolled his eyes. “Yeah, sure. And you couldn’t have made room without the beds pushed together, or you couldn’t move other furniture together besides your beds.” Specs stared as if he was waiting for the punchline. “Dude! You sleep next to each other! What other evidence do you want?”

“I want Romeo to tell me explicitly that he likes me and wants to date me. Until then, I won’t be doing anything.”

“What if he’s scared just like you?” 

“Then…” Specs tried to come up with an answer. “I don’t know. I don’t want to lose my best friend just because of my feelings.” 

“I swear you won’t lose him,” David told him, meaning every word of it, “But we can change the subject. Where do you think I should take Jack on our next date?”

* * *

Another day comes with another desk shift for Jack. He sat at the computer behind the desk, Crutchie was also allowed behind the desk because he was a desk worker in the dorm buildings as his job. Race and Albert had come to hang out so they were leaned over the desk so they could look over at Jack and Crutchie.

“I still think it’s absurd that you made Crutchie stay over that late. Can I say that?” Albert said when their conversation lulled again.

“Okay, eleven o’clock is not that late. I’m not an asshole who sexiled their roommate? Davey and I didn’t even do anything yesterday! We ordered a pizza and watched a couple of movies.”

Race turned on his sing-song voice. “Jack’s got a boyfriend! Jack’s got a boyfriend.”

Albert’s word filter didn’t seem to work after playing video games all night. “At least when Race sees someone, he leaves the dorm rather than trying to kick me out.”

Both Crutchie and Jack looked at Race with utter glee. Both of them at the same time said something along the lines of, What? Seeing someone? Do tell…

Race looked shocked and he was staring at Albert. “I’m not seeing somebody.”

“Yeah you are dude,” Albert decided to keep his mouth shut about Spot, “You leave and spend the night places all the time.”

“That doesn’t mean I’m seeing someone!” Albert couldn’t tell whether or not Race was just annoyed or actually mad. He didn’t want to make him anymore angry if he actually was.

“Wait, is it going to be weird now that you and Davey are together?” Albert asked, hoping the change of pace would take the heat off Race. “I don’t want it to be weird, he’s actually cool.”

“He’s cool opposed to what?” Jack asked.

“You’re ex.” Race took the change of pace. “I liked him, but he didn’t really get along well with all of us.”

“Yeah, well he turned out to be an asshole, so it’s not like we really wanted him to last.”

* * *

“Who’s ready to get fucked up?” Jojo shouted as soon as David walked out of his room.

"Wait, we're getting fucked up?" David asked, looking at his three roommates. "I thought it was just a party?"

"What else are all of our friends going to do at a party besides getting fucked up?" Sarah was eating some crackers and spoke with food in her mouth.

"I just didn't know because it's Sunday and we all have classes tomorrow."

Katherine just patted David on the arm. "Yep. Tomorrow we will all suffer and curse ourselves at this very moment, but right now, I'm ready to beat Race and Spot in a round of poker."

"And I'm ready to wipe everyone's ass at Cards Against Humanity." Sarah grabbed her car keys. "The party's gonna start soon; let's go."

The four of them piled into the car and drove to campus. Rather than parking in the lot for commuter students, Sarah drove to a different part of campus and parked at the Apartments.

David could see why the Apartments had their reputation. They were built recently, maybe around the same time that Race and Albert's dorm was built. It wasn't tall, maybe only four stories, but each apartment had their own balcony or porch. The Apartments were also on their own part of campus without any other buildings around it- definitely on a league of its own.

Sarah led the way to Spot's apartment on the first floor. David could hear the music from the outside of the door. Sarah opened the door, and the music became louder. The apartment opened up to the kitchen where Jack and Crutchie were working over a cake. There was music coming from a bluetooth speaker in the living room- and the music from the TV was mixed in as Mush, Spot, Albert, and Race all played Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. There were a few people sitting around a circle kitchen table in the middle of a card game.

Sarah and Katherine made their way to the table and Jojo went to sit on the couch and watch the Smash Bros game. David closed the door behind him and came up behind Jack and Crutchie.

"What's the cake for?" 

Jack turned around and saw David and smiled. David wanted to kiss him but with the cake and Jack having his hands a little full it would be a little awkward.

"Along with this being a back to school bash, we also are celebrating all the summer birthdays that we weren't here to celebrate. This is our birthday cake." David leaned over and looked at the cake. It was covered in a white icing and in with different colors _Happy Birthday_ and each name was written on the cake: Race, Finch, Katherine, and Jack.

"Your birthday was this summer?"

"Yep, August 1st." 

“Happy birthday.”

David helped in the kitchen with finishing up the pieces for the birthday celebration with Jack and Crutchie. When they got everything set up and finished, Crutchie shooed Jack away from the counter and onto a stool. There were three empty stools next to him. 

“Race, Katherine, Finch! Get your asses over here!” Crutchie yelled.

Someone turned down the music from the bluetooth speaker and people started to migrate closer to the kitchen.

“Um, I’m in the middle of something here!” Race shouted back. He was hunched over the controller, pressing buttons frantically. 

“No, you’re not! Pause the game or you’re not getting any of your cake!”

Katherine and Finch came by without any hassle, taking two of the three empty stools beside Jack. Crutchie gave David some birthday hats. He started with Jack and put it on over his head, giving him a kiss on the cheek as he pulled back. He did the same with Katherine and Finch sans cheek kiss. Race eventually made his way over, grumbling under his breath. 

The cake was lit in front of them with one candle each. The apartment began to sing happy birthday to them (replacing the name with ‘the idiots’) and each of them blew out their candles. After they were done, everyone clapped, and Jack began cutting the pieces onto paper plates. 

David wasn’t eating any for himself, but he did mooch a couple bites off Jack’s plate. Most people went back to what they were doing before, except Crutchie managed to get a switch controller to play Smash Bros and Spot moved to the table where Sarah and Katherine were perched and started dealing in a hand of poker.

Eventually David got a beer in his hand and the night really began. 

Someone got out the shotski and David was roped into standing between Specs and Jojo as they took a shot of some clear liquid that burned its way down David’s throat. 

Jack was killing a game of flip cup on the bar, easily taking the red solo cup and flicking it so it landed mouth down and he could go to the next cup.

David was looking for a cup to get water and found instead a Smirnoff Ice in the cupboard. Katherine, who put the Ice there and was waiting on the unsuspecting victim to open the cupboard, laughed loudly, and started chanting _ice! Ice! Ice! Ice!_ Until David got down on one knee on the ground and began chugging the bottle.

Crutchie apparently was able to hold his liquor because he was on his fourth beer and David wouldn’t be able to tell anything was off with him if he hadn’t seen him drink all of them. He was having a good time yelling at the TV while Albert was apparently kicking his ass. 

When Mario Kart started, David made his way to the couch and began to play. Finch, Spot, and Romeo joined him, and they began one of the most chaotic games that David ever played in his life. Everyone was yelling at each other and at anyone else who happened to accidentally walk in front of the TV (sorry Specs). David skills were dampened by the alcohol, but that meant he was just a proficient player now rather than an advanced one. Romeo was the only one who got close to David, only by using a blue shell to try to surpass him.

Eventually everything went from the crazy drunks having their way with an apartment to more calm. The switch got turned off to have the TV on with a random movie and the volume turned low. Most everyone was sitting around the circle kitchen table even though everyone couldn’t fit super comfortably around it. Jack and David were sharing a chair in between Jojo and Crutchie while everyone was in a game of spoons. 

Everything would move fast during the game and when another round was finished, they would slow down and talk again about anything and everything. 

The most important conversation of the night started with Crutchie asking if he could stay the night at the apartments.

“It’s just that you all are the closest to my Monday, Wednesday, Friday classes with that fucking construction in the way now.”

“Yeah man, we can get a bed for you.” 

David started shuffling cards. “I sweat with all of this stuff happening with the accessibility and the accommodations is really screwing all of us over. Crutchie’s gotta redo his whole route to classes and stay over, Albert has a shitty professor, Romeo’s losing his job, and I didn’t get my accommodations for classes. How many other people are they going to screw over?”

Jack shifted beside him. “I did too.”

David turned to Jack; Jack shrugged under his stare. “I usually get accommodations too- but they denied them this semester. They didn’t tell me why.”

“Are we just gonna let them do this to you all?” Race asked, smacking the extra deck of cards he had in his hand a little hard on the table, so the sound rang out.

“Apparently the student government hasn’t been getting any kind of response from administration.” Crutchie said. “If they don’t get a response all they can do is give us resources to report to and that’s it.”

“It would be easier if there was an event,” Katherine said, tapping her fingers.

Spot spoke for the rest of the group. “An event?”

“Well, yeah,” She straightened up how she was sitting now that attention was on her. “I was thinking that maybe I could get it in the school newspaper, to, you know, get more eyes on it. But, people don’t like to read a long report of things that have been happening around campus. If there was something, like a single event, that happened, it would be easier and more eye catching to write an event and why it happened than if it was just a list of injustices.” 

There was silence as everyone thought that over. The next card game was paused without everyone saying. 

“An event like a protest?” David asked. It was one of the only things he could think of. He remembers when Christian groups came to protest at his old school and the school ended up writing about how all the students would argue back until they left on their website.

“Yeah, like that! It’s something to catch people’s attention, and then when people ask ‘Why?’ you can give them the answer- you can say that a campus that typically prides itself on its accessibility is now dropping the ball and leaving their students to change where they sleep at night just to get to class, or how they have to go around the channels put in place because the original ones aren’t working. Then you have something that people want to pay attention to.”

There was another pause of silence before. David was thinking that a protest wouldn’t be a bad thing- but how many people would actually listen to them? Then he remembered that Jack was there too, and people would listen to him. Sarah broke the silence and said what David was thinking himself. “A protest doesn’t sound like a bad idea.” 

Twin telepathy and all that.

“Would we be able to get the attention we need though?” Jack asked. “I mean, seriously, we see people around campus all the time who are trying to say something and we look away or walk past them a little faster. Who’s gonna say they’ll actually listen to us?”

Race smacked his cards on the able again. “We’ll make them listen to us! Scream a little louder, someone’s got to hear it, right?” 

“If we get the word out to other groups of students, it could be a bigger event, even by a little,” Spot took a swig of the beer he had been drinking previously. “Katie, you said you could get it in the newspaper if it happened?”

“Yeah. If nothing else happened I could probably get it on the front page. Both because it’ll be good and because I’m friends with the editor.”

“What groups could everyone reach out to?”

“I could get the Deaf Student and Sign Language Association, probably,” Romeo answered, “and they have the reach to a lot of Deaf and sign language users on campus. It affects them too.” 

“I could tell the LGBT Student Union about it,” Jojo added. “I can’t guarantee anything, but I could let them know what’s happening.”

“I can talk to some of the jocks about it. I don’t know if they’ll care, but I can talk to them and see if they can make an Instagram post or something.” Spot said.

David listened to everyone speak. A protest was more than a possibility now. “Are we doing this? Like are we going to do this?”

“Let’s vote,” Jack straightened himself up as much as he could while still sharing the chair with David. “All in favor of us protesting and trying to get the attention of someone to actually help us?” 

All the hands raised in the air: some higher than others, some a little nervous, as if they didn’t know if it was the right answer. Jack surveyed the hands with a watchful eye. From what David could see, everyone had their hand up at least a little bit. 

“Okay,” Jack took a deep breath. “Okay…what do we need to do now?”

Looking at Jack, David could tell that this sprung up on him. The deep breath was to calm his nerves. David decided to take some of it off him. “We need a plan, and it needs to be sooner rather than later. What’s everyone doing next week?”

The table started sounding off on which days they were busy and free, so much so that Finch went into his room and grabbed a piece of paper so Sarah could start keeping track of days and times when everyone was free. When everyone was done, Sarah and Race took their time and worked on figuring out which day was best for everyone.

“Where are we doing it at?” Crutchie asked.

“How about the courtyard? It’s probably the most trafficked place on campus besides the dining hall, and there’s nowhere around the dining hall to do anything.”

“The courtyard is where the Christian protesters do their schtick, so it’s probably our best bet.”

“Okay, we need to make signs if we can. I have access to the RA resource room that has a bunch of the stuff that I could use to make the signs. I can work on them tomorrow; what do they need to say?”

“We can’t say that the university is being an ass, can we?”

“No, Spot, probably not.”

Eventually when they got some of the logistics worked out, Race and Sarah joined them back at the kitchen table. They laid down the papers they were using to work out schedules. “Everyone is the freest on Tuesday, and if we do shifts, we can have at least three people there from 10:30 til 3:30 if we wanted to do that.”

“I think that could work.” 

The party worked on everything else they could think of until the night (or rather morning) was called by Spot and Finch, who both had 8ams the next day (or later that morning, if they were being technical about it). They had the couches open for anyone who wanted to stay over and not have to walk or drive back to their dorms. Crutchie stayed behind to get to class the next morning, and Race said he’d stay behind too (Albert and David saw him slip into Spot’s room rather than claim one of the couches).

Sarah, Katherine, Jojo, and David were going to go back to their apartment and offered rides to anyone who wanted any- which Jack was the only one to take. They piled in the car, Sarah driving (who didn’t drink because she knew she would be driving), Kath in the front seat, and David squished between Jojo and Jack in the back seat. 

Jack was fidgeting through most of the ride home. When it was starting to distract David, he gave Jack his hand and let Jack play with his fingers. That seemed to settle him a little bit until they pulled in front of the door to Jack’s dorm. 

Jack climbed out of the car and David followed him out to say goodnight. They stood at the door.

“I can tell you’re nervous,” David started, softly though. “It’s gonna be okay.”

“Is it really that obvious?” Jack asked with a sheepish smile. 

“Nah, maybe not to everyone else, but from someone who’s clinically anxious, I could see it. But don’t worry about anything tonight. It’ll all be okay.”

“I’ll try my best.” Jack squeezed David’s hand before letting it go. “Can I call you later?”

David chuckled. “You can call and talk to me until I fall asleep. Alcohol makes me tired and I think I’ll pass out soon.”

“Okay, just wait for my text, yeah?”

“Yeah,” David said nodding. He leaned over and gave Jack a quick kiss. 

“Kiss your boyfriend some other time!” Sarah yelled from the car. “I’m tired as fuck!”

The pair rolled their eyes. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Davey?”

“As always.”


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> planning and protesting...

Monday afternoon, Romeo had a meeting with the board of Deaf Student and Sign Language Association. It was set up very fast, Romeo just messaged the President in the morning and asked to meet with as many of the members of the board as possible by the end of the day. And here he was, with Specs too, on a Google video call meeting.

There were four of the six board members available, which was more than Romeo thought would be there, but more people the better. The DSSLA was a student run organization, but they prided themselves on being the contact with any issues relating to the sign language department or any issues related. Romeo would like to think that this was related, considering that half of the board would be without note-takers soon and this was a general campus wide accessibility issue. 

He and Specs sat in the library next to each other with their laptops open and they started describing the issues. First, they started with asking if they knew note-takers were going to be phased out by next semester. The President, who everyone lovingly called ‘Hotshot’ and had a short and had a face that said she meant business, said they heard about it and she, personally, wasn’t very happy with it herself, considering she used the note-takers herself.

Romeo went into more of what the accommodations office has been doing with denying multiple students their accommodations. He explained that another student reported a teacher for saying something ableist and how the report was never filed. He finally ended on how a friend of his who uses a wheelchair has needed to relocate for some of the days of the week because the path to his classes have become inaccessible to him. 

Specs then went on to explain that people in the courtyard will be protesting the accessibility issues on campus and having the DSSLA spread some of the word would be great in helping them get awareness. 

Hotshot paused, then tapped her fingers together as she thought. 

“ _First, I want to say I’m on your side, fully. This all happening is something that we need to fix. We,_ ” she gestured to the rest of the board, _“-will discuss what we want to do, but email me the information about the event tomorrow and we’ll see what we can do.”_

Romeo and Specs thanked the board for being able to meet at such a short notice, and almost simultaneously exited the call and looked at each other. Romeo let out a deep breath.

“We did our part,” Specs said.

“Yeah we did,” Romeo moved to put his laptop in his backpack. “But Hotshot still scares the shit out of me.”

“God, same! It doesn’t matter how many times she actually smiles and laughs, it’s like she’s going to kill me with her resting face.”

* * *

_**Jojo:** Hey guys, there’s an event I wanted to tell you all about happening on campus tomorrow. A lot of people I know have been seeing accessibility issues on campus. The construction has blocked most of campus for wheelchair users and I know someone who’s been directly affected. The Office of Student Accommodations has been denying students the services they need all year. A few of us are going to be in the courtyard tomorrow morning and afternoon trying to spread the word, and if you all would come, that would be really nice._

_**Benny:** wait the accommodations office has been denying people all year?_

_**Jojo:** Yeah, I know two people myself who were denied and they’ve been without their class accommodations all semester. _

_**Benny:** i got denied accommodations too, i thought it was only me. i’ll come by and see y’all!_

_**Jojo:** Thank you! Anyone who wants to come please do!_

* * *

David sat down in his morning class, sort of feeling like death, but also just mad that he had to get up in the morning after being up most the night, some at the party and then falling asleep on the phone with Jack. 

“Okay, class is officially starting, any news you all want to share this week?” The professor always opened up the floor for students who had events or things they wanted to promote around campus. Most of the time athletes took the opportunity to talk about upcoming games, or people involved in organizations talking about food drives or open houses.

David raised his hand. “Yes?”

“There’s going to be a protest tomorrow in the courtyard,” David suddenly had the thought that he hadn’t spoken in this class yet and this was the first time he did, “There’s been a lot of problems with accessibility on campus and the administration has been ignoring it for weeks, so there's going to be people protesting, if you all want more information you can come to the courtyard tomorrow.”

“Thank you for sharing. You can get more information from him after class if you’re curious. Any other news?”

* * *

Jack went into the library after his class, then went straight for the coffee shop. It was his routine for the past few weeks on Mondays and Wednesdays- get out of class, hang out with Davey until his class started, and walk him to his building. Jack walked into the coffee shop and Davey was there- at their normal table with his laptop out.

Jack skipped the coffee and went straight to where his sort-of boyfriend-but-they-haven’t-had- _that_ -conversation-yet was sitting.

“Hey, Jack,” Davey smiled. He closed his laptop and put it in his backpack.

“Hi Davey,” Jack sat down at the seat across from him. 

When they first met, Jack was first stuck on Davey being cute- which is true, Davey is very much cute. Then he started to get to know Davey. Davey was smart. He was able to do his homework all at once and he was taking eighteen hours like nobody’s business- but he was also smarter than just that. He could keep up with everyone, and sometimes he even let himself give a smart comeback to a comment than had Jack just rolling. Davey was also able to slot himself into Jack’s friends like there was a missing spot for him all along. 

“How was your day?”

Jack rolled his eyes. “I woke up for class, and cursed God and everyone who let me go drinking on a Sunday night before classes. Then for staying up so late before I had to get up.”

“That’s exactly what Katherine said would happen.” 

“Well, Kath’s smart and she knows us better than anyone else.” Jack pulled out his water bottle and took a drink. “Also, the fact that you get tired when you’re drunk is unfair- being able to sleep it off is so much better than drunk me putting things on snapchat that he really shouldn’t be.”

“Sarah gets tired too, it must be a genetic thing.” Davey pulled out his phone. “What did you post on snapchat? Was it embarrassing?” 

Jack took the phone out of Davey’s hand and put it on the table face down. “We don’t need to see that.”

Davey laughed, and tried to pull his phone back. “No seriously, what did you post? I won’t watch them now if you tell me.”

Jack was smiling at Davey and let go of his phone. “I think there’s a video of me and Spot using the shotski, and one of us all screaming while playing spoons. And I think there’s one of me yelling at the TV while some of you all were playing Mario Kart, but it’s all nonsense.”

“So you’re a shouting drunk?”

“No, I’m a post-stupid-shit-online drunk. That’s why none of my residents can have me on snapchat. If they saw me do that and then I got them in trouble for having alcohol in their rooms, I would feel like a hypocrite.”

“Because you would be, but that’s okay.” David took his phone and put it in the back pocket of his jeans. “I still like you.”

Jack couldn’t help but grin at that statement. He’s glad that Davey likes him. “I like you too.”

They looked at each other- fondness coming through both of their faces. They were quiet for a moment.

“What do you-“

“Can I-“

Both stopped to let the other talk. 

“You go ahead, Jack.”

Jack tapped his fingers on the table, which Davey took into his own hands. “I know that we’ve only been on one real date- but I wanted to know if you’d be my boyfriend?”

Davey squeezed Jack’s fingers. “Yeah, that would be cool.”

Jack took a moment to breathe. “Cool.” He paused. “What were you going to say?”

“I was going to ask if you wanted to get dinner for our second date. Since we didn’t really get to do our dinner on Saturday.”

“That sounds great, actually.” Jack twisted his hand so it was holding Davey’s rather than Davey holding his fingers. “When do you want to go eat?”

“How about Saturday? If you’re not on call again.”

“I happen to not be on call- as it happens. I’m completely free to be your date,” Jack repeats something, just because he can, “because you’re my boyfriend.”

* * *

The next day started much of the same. David had class, but there was more anxiety behind it. He can’t remember who exactly said they would set up, but he knows it’s happening when he checks the time on his laptop and it’s 10:30. He was anxious about the thing, both if nothing happens and if something happens. He was practically vibrating when he got out of class and made his way out to the courtyard.

Finch, Sarah, and Race were in the courtyard when David got there. They got a fold out table from somewhere and had signs propped up on the table. David saw someone walk past and Sarah start a conversation, but it didn’t hold as the person walked past her not a few seconds later.

When he reached them, he slung his backpack under the table. “How’s it been going?”

“It’s been slow,” Finch said, “There haven’t been a lot of people around, probably because it’s the morning.”

“We’ve just been trying to talk to people and ask them to share something online about the accessibility issues or email the accommodations office about what they’re doing.”

“And Albert and I made a flyer with a QR code to add them to a change.org petition,” Race added. “But only two people have actually had a conversation with us, so right now we’re just waiting for people.”

“Well, I guess that means we have work to do.”

Over the next hour David and the rest of the crew tried to catch people’s attention. He started passing out the flyers to people walking by. Most people were just not giving them the time of day, which David can’t really say anything about because when someone tries to catch David's attention before now he’s always looked at his phone, or put his earbuds in so he would have an excuse _not_ to talk to anyone. After today, he might actually consider giving people attention.

Eventually both Sarah and Finch had to leave for class and Race and David were on their own for about thirty minutes until Jack and Albert came to join them. Jack greeted David with a kiss on the cheek (which he hopes he never gets used to) and put his bag with the others under the table.

Jack was able to get a lot of people to at least take a flyer- more than he and Race were able to anyway. It helped Jack that he knew about every third person who walked by. It was getting closer to lunch time and more people were walking through the courtyard to go to the dining hall and food courts.

With the afternoon in full swing, more of their friends came to help out. Crutchie was there manning the table with Mush. Each person was spread out among the different entrances to the courtyard: David placed himself in front of the entrance to the library where people would be coming in and out, Jack was by a building that David now knew was a classroom and professor’s office building, and Specs and Katherine were by the side of the courtyard that didn’t have a building. 

Everything was going well actually. The more David talked and started conversations, the easier it became. He actually got some people to scan the QR code and sign the petition in front of him, which is more than he thought would happen when he realized that they threw this plan together haphazardly in the middle of the night.

It was all going well, until Campus Security came by. 

David could see the two uniformed officers coming toward the table where Crutchie and Mush were. David eyed them and made his way to the table so he could be there in case anything happened. The officers beat David to the table, but he could see Jack, Specs, and Katherine all had the same idea as him and were making their way back too (Katherine pulling her phone out of her pocket and pointing it at the officers).

“Sir, we’re allowed to congregate here. It’s on campus and we’re part of a group.” Crutchie said with more respect and calm than Mush looked.

“You have to have a permit to be assembling on the outdoor property of campus.” One of the officers said, his hands resting on the straps of his vest.

“We’re allowed to assemble on public property. It’s a part of our first amendment rights, and we will continue to assemble here.” Jack stepped in front of the table to put himself between Mush and Crutchie. 

“This is _campus_ property, and you need a permit to assemble on _campus_ property.”

“Can I see that code in writing?” Spot asked, crossing his arms across his chest, and standing next to Jack. “Last I remembered, because of Tinker v Des Moines in 1969, students' first amendment rights are maintained while at school and on school property.” 

“Are you a registered student organization?” 

“Why is that important?” Jack asked.

“Registered Student Organizations are allowed to assemble on campus as long as they turn in a form with their intent to do so.” The officer smirked, like he caught them in a lie or the middle of doing something wrong. It made David’s stomach turn.

Jack was silent. Spot was silent. Everyone stayed quiet and watched the match that was going in their eyes. The only person David could see moving was Katherine in his periphery. She gave Specs her phone she was still holding, probably videoing the situation, and she took Spec’s phone and tapped on the screen every couple seconds- taking pictures.

Jack broke the silence. “We’re not leaving unless you can show us that school policy in writing.”

The officers looked at each other, then one went into the radio on his shoulder. “Yeah, we’re going to see some campus PD in the courtyard by the library.”

“Call campus PD all you want,” Jack stepped closer to the officers- not by a lot but by enough to make sure his point got across. “I won’t be leaving.” 

David was already anxious when the police officers and now his boyfriend was almost picking a fight with a security officer. Jack was in the right, but security officers had power and Jack was just a student (Jack was a non-white student, standing in two security officers’ faces- which scared him even more). Jack didn’t have a lead here.

“You need to back up.” The officer pushed Jack’s shoulders with enough force to knock him back a few steps and almost into the table. There was a collective gasp among everyone watching. 

David almost watched in slow motion as Jack got back up. He almost went to push, or do something, back. That was when David pushed himself into action. Both he and Spot took one of Jack’s arms and held him back from doing anything. 

“You need to leave.” The officer who didn’t push said.

“Fuck off,” Spot said. 

“Is that all you can say? Can you find literally anything to _actually_ say or are you just going to leave us be?” David asked, almost through a snarl. 

“Sir, we’ll be leaving. You can call off the hounds.” Race said, stepping between Jack and the officers. 

Jack wasn’t actively pulling against David’s hold, so he loosened it, and Spot did the same. The officers stepped back and waited. “We’ll oversee you leaving to ensure that you do.”

Jack didn’t move and so David didn’t move either. Spot and Race started collecting all the papers on the table. People started grabbing their backpacks from under the table and Mush started collapsing the table to carry it. Only when everything was in people’s arms and everyone was waiting for Jack to leave did he grab his backpack. David followed suit and the group of them walked out of the courtyard while the officers were smug watching them leave.

“I hope you got all of that, Katie.” Jack stomped down the sidewalk, all their friends following him like ducklings to their mother. 

“I got all of that on video and I took pictures.” Katherine had a mischievous glint in his eyes. “Jack, that was _assault_. That’s something people can’t ignore!”

Jack ignored her comment and turned to the group. “I guess we’re done for the day. I’m going back to the dorm, then doing something. I don’t know. I’m just pissed.”

“Yeah, man, do what you need to do.” Race put his backpack on the front of his body and began shoving papers into it. “I guess we’re all heading back to wherever.”

Jack began to walk away from the group, following the sidewalk on the way to his dorm. “I guess so.” David said, watching Jack leave. 

* * *

_**Students Stand Up to Campus Oppressors!** _

**__** _By: Katherine Plumber_

_[Image description: A boy with light brown skin wearing a tee shirt from a local restaurant is in the midst of falling. There is a table behind him and at the table sits who male students: one in a wheelchair and one with a Campus Recreation shirt. Next to the table is another student in a Math Tutoring Center tee shirt. Two security officers have their backs and sides to the camera. One is standing still while the other has his arms out. It’s clear in the picture the officer pushed the boy away from him.]_

_Tuesday afternoon a small informative protest took place in the courtyard between the Library, the Flushing Building, and Woodside building. This event was used to raise awareness about the lack of accessibility on campus and how students are affected. Multiple students have seen drastic decreases in the accessibility of campus, and how they are being accommodated for their classes._

_A group of students who have been personally affected gathered to share information about how other students can aid in catching the attention of school administration, as these students have yet to be acknowledged by school administration officials._

_As the Tuesday afternoon carried on, campus security came to disband the students. Why were the students asked to disband? Campus security officers claimed that students, if not a part of a Registered Student Organization (RSO), aren’t allowed to assemble. Junior Human Resource and Business Management major, Jack Kelly, stood and asked for the security officers to show him the policy, which they refused. It ended in an altercation in which Officer Kenneth Johnson pushed Kelly away from him and into the table the students had set up._

_The accessibility issues students were protesting were from two different sources: one was from the new construction site for our Campus Recreation center. The pedestrian path around and through construction isn’t accessible to wheelchair users. Junior Parks and Recreation major, Charlie Morris, commented on the pedestrian walkway: “The pedestrian path has stairs, which means I can’t use it at all. When I have to go around construction, which I need to do three times a week for classes, it adds about thirty minutes on my way to class because I have to go completely around the construction, and it’s a big site. It’s made it harder to get to class. If the [pedestrian] path were accessible, I would be okay, but it’s not, and no one’s listening to anything we have to say.”_

_The other accessibility issue the students were protesting on Tuesday is the lack of services given by the Office of Student Accommodations. Multiple students have been denied services that even last semester they had. Whether that service was extensions on assignments, tests, and other classwork or quiet rooms to take exams in away from other students and distractions- it seemed to cease. Multiple students have reported their services were denied for trivial reasons- paperwork out of date, services expiring, etcetera._

_Not to mention the Office of Student Accommodations is laying off twenty student staff members by the end of the semester as they phase out in-person, student note-takers and start using a software to replace all the student workers. The software, called Groundhog, has a less than stellar rating from students and interpreters who are using it in their test trial. The fact that student note-takers have already been told they will be laid off when the Office of Student Accommodations haven’t finished their test trial of the Groundhog software has been confusing the current note-takers and people who use the service because of the low opinion of the Groundhog software._

_We are still waiting to see what the administration will say in response to these issues and allegations. They have been emailed by concerned students and the leaders in Student Government, but there has yet to be a response as of the writing and publishing of this article. If you want to sign the petition or find more information, you can scan the QR code at the bottom of this article. The Campus Sun will keep you updated as the story progresses._


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the newspaper is out...

“I feel like nothing’s happened, and nothing will happen.” Jack laid on the floor in the middle of his and Crutchie’s room. Davey was sitting on the floor next to Jack with his back against the wall. Crutchie was on his bed and Romeo was sitting in the chair that Jack usually sat in when he was watching TV. 

“Well, the school newspaper hasn’t run Kath’s article yet,” Crutchie said. “She said they were running it, and we have to wait for something to happen. Nothing’s going to happen immediately.”

“Yeah, dude, change takes time.” Romeo clicked on the Xbox controller that he was using with Crutchie. Jack and Davey were just hanging out with them. 

Jack didn’t feel optimistic about anything that happened the day before. All he felt was stupid and like nothing he did would change anything. He wasn’t able to focus on anything today- not even Davey when they were getting coffee together. He was glad he only had the two early classes, and that he wasn’t working today. He wouldn’t be able to think of anything else other than how _nothing is happening_.

“We just have to hold on a little longer.” Davey said, scooting himself a little closer to Jack on the floor. He put his fingers on Jack’s forehead and started raking his fingers through Jack’s hair. “Katherine said the paper comes out Friday, right?”

“Yeah, it takes them a little bit to get it distributed to each of the buildings, so we should expect it in most buildings by noon.” Crutchie was waving his controller around, as if moving it any more will help him out in the game.

“See, Jackie?” Davey ruffled Jack’s hair a little bit before continuing doing strokes down the top of his head. “We just have to wait until Friday before something will happen. You just need to get your mind off of it for a bit.”

“You wanna smoke me after I whoop Crutchie’s ass?” Romeo asked. “Real soon and Crutchie’s done for-“

“He’s lying; I’m in the middle of absolutely murking him!”

“Nah, I’m good.” Jack moved his head so it was in Davey’s lap rather than in his hoodie that he bunched up on the floor to have a makeshift pillow. “At least we’ll have something by Friday.”

* * *

With Jack being on edge, and the tense air around the group- Crutchie thought it would be a good idea to get everyone together at the food court again to get everyone’s mind off of what happened on Tuesday. Jack thought it was a good idea- and he could stand to take some time with his friends (not like he doesn’t see them all the time anyway, he just likes it when everyone’s together and having a good time).

When they all get their food and push all the tables together everything is chaotic- but the good kind of chaotic. They split off in their own conversations, but everyone was still in tune with the rest of the people around them.

Davey and Crutchie were telling Sarah about how David acted like Crutchie’s new boyfriend to one of his exes in the dining hall earlier in the day. Romeo, Spot, Finch, and Race were all seeing who could drink the most hot sauce packets before they tapped out. Specs was looking at the photos of fabrics and colors on Sarah’s phone, because even though he had glasses, he still had the best eyes in the group. Then Davey switched to arguing with Albert about the Harry Potter movie adaptations. 

Jack just sort of existed in the middle of it. He was currently listening to Kath tell him about newspaper staff drama so he was caught up on every little thing that happened with them, but he was also thinking about all the people around him. Davey was on his left, getting louder the more impassioned he was getting in his argument, and Kath was on his right, talking with her hands. But everyone around him meant something to him. And looking over at all of them, Jack feels less tense than he did before. Yes, he’s still itching for something to happen- something to change. But they’ll all figure something out together- as long as they don’t end up killing each other first.

* * *

The first thing David did on Friday when he was going to class was stop by one of the newspaper stands in his classroom building. The stand was stacked to the top with a bunch of newspapers and David couldn’t help but to grab the top few and look at the front page.

The newspaper wasn’t as large as a real newspaper- the full length was about a half of the size of a real paper- and it folded out like a book or a magazine rather than being folded in on itself. It was still the traditional newsprint material- and on the front cover David saw a photo of Jack with Crutchie and Mush behind him and Race standing next to the table, and the cop in the foreground. It was a picture of the cop mid-push and Jack was falling back. 

David read the article on the way to his class, relying mostly on muscle memory from walking to his class every day to make sure he got there. He made an exception to ride the elevator rather than take the stairs like he normally does (he did not want to trip up the stairs and make a huge embarrassment of himself). He walked into his classroom and sat at his normal seat. 

Katherine was a good writer. David knew that objectively from what he’s heard about her from Sarah, how she talks about her assignments both in her journalism classes and for the newspaper, and from little awards and certificates she’s won in the past, but this was the first time David actually went out of his way to read something of hers. It sounded good. It put the blame on the administration and the campus security officers (as it should be). Katherine was also smart in putting the QR code that Race made at the bottom of the article so more people could sign the petition and contact administration. 

David took a picture of the front page of the newspaper and sent it to the snapchat group before his class started. He barely paid attention, he mostly went through and read through the paper, each time reading it more and more carefully. When he finally decided he was finished reading it, he studied the picture on the front page- looking at every part of it, each person’s expressions, how they were standing- just everything.

He saw that Katherine and Specs were filming and taking pictures- but this picture turned out better than David thought it would. It’s clear and it shows that the officer was clearly pushing Jack. There was no way to misconstrue it. He just hoped other people would see it and think the same.

* * *

A newspaper landed on four different desks that morning: one on the Provost of the University, one on the head of the Office of Student Affairs, Mr. Wiesel, and one each on the desks of the heads of the Office of Student Accommodations, Misters Delancey.

Provost Pulitzer wasn’t happy to see his daughter’s name on the byline. It’s something exactly like her to do- write a paper and put it on the front page criticizing the university he runs. He writes the names down mentioned in the article, in case he needs them for later: Jack Kelly and Charlie Morris. 

* * *

“It’s my first one on the front page,” Kath said, looking over the newspaper. She’s been working at the campus newspaper since she was a freshman covering the sports pages, but now she’s on the front page with a nice colorful picture and her article was there in full print.

“I know. We should frame it,” Sarah said, looking over Kath’s shoulder and resting her chin on it. 

Kath turned her head to the side and looked at Sarah. She was biting her lip and looking at the picture of Jack on the front page of the paper. Kath looked over her face and it didn’t seem excited or happy. “What’s up?”

“I’m just a little nervous about your dad.” Sarah turned her eyes away from the paper and looked back at Kath. “I know that you don’t talk to him, but he’s high up in the university and I can’t help but to think what he’ll do when he sees that you’re taking a stand like this against him.”

“I’m not scared of my father.” Kath shook her head and set the newspaper down on their bed. “And I’m not going against him- I’m going against the university.”

“From what you told me about him, he’ll see it as one in the same.” Sarah leaned away from Kath and laid on the bed so she could see Kath from the front. “I know this is great. It’s amazing! I don’t know why, but I thought of it and now I can’t stop.”

“If he tries something- I’ll try to take care of it. I don’t know what he’d try to do, or what he even has the power to do but if I hear anything about him doing something- I’ll talk with him.”

* * *

“I am the king of campus,” Race announced. He was thinking about the newspaper and how after two years he was finally able to get not only in the newspaper but on the front cover of it.

“Oh yeah?” Spot asked, pulling his comforter over his shoulders but laying on Race’s shoulder anyway. They were lying in bed together. Race decided to come over after all his classes had finished for the day. He was riding the high of being on the cover of the newspaper so clearly.

“Yeah, you saw me on that paper!” 

“I did see you, background of the picture wearing your work shirt and standing next to Mush,” Spot leaned up from Race’s shoulder to press a swift kiss to his lips. “I still need more evidence that you’re the king of campus.”

“Well,” Race drew out his words. He put his arm around Spot’s waist and pulled him closer, if that were possible, “As of my four week progress report, I have all As in my classes, I have a job on campus that I don’t absolutely hate, I have a handsome guy on my arm,” Race would have blushed if he thought about _that_ too hard, “and I was on the front page of the school newspaper. I think that’s enough evidence to say that I’m the king of campus.”

Spot nodded, taking in that information. “You think I’m handsome?”

“You know I do.” 

Silence fell over the two. Race thought about how he may have shown his cards and how maybe Spot would be done with him. Race was scared to verbalize his feelings in case they ever crossed a line. He didn’t know where the line was, it was vague and blurred and he didn’t understand it himself, but he knew that crossing it would mean coming upon something he didn’t know. Race was sure that crossing the line would end in Spot not being his best friend anymore.

“I think you're handsome too.” Spot said, tucking in his chin into Race’s collar bone.

The tension Race was holding in his chest was eased, at least for a little bit. It’ll be okay.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> it's the coming out in the michael's parking lot for me

On Saturday morning, Katherine, Jojo, and David all stood in the living room of their apartment and watched as Sarah hung a frame on the wall by their TV. It was the front page and the article Katherine wrote all spruced up. They all decided it deserved a place of honor in their apartment. 

“Baby, look at that,” Sarah said after she was done. She hooked her arm around Katherine’s waist and looked at it on the wall. “Your first front page framed up all nice.”

“You didn’t have to do that,” Katherine put her head on Sarah’s shoulder, not looking away from the frame.

“Yeah, we did. We’re proud of you, Kathy.” Jojo gave Katherine a side hug from the other side. 

“You deserve it, Katherine.” David added. He looked at the girls he shared his apartment with. They were huddled together, arms across each other. David thought about how he was living in a dorm with a random dude he met on move-in day not even a year ago. He’s glad he’s here now. He wouldn’t want to change how it turned out for him.

* * *

“Would it be too much if I sent a copy of the newspaper to my mom?” Romeo asked, leaning his head over on Specs bed. Their beds were pushed together so it wasn’t like there was a large distinction where Romeo’s bed ended and where Specs began, but it was still invading Spec’s space even in a little bit. Specs didn’t seem to mind though.

“Considering that you weren’t in the picture or even mentioned in the story?” Specs down at Romeo where he was sitting up with his back against the wall, “Yeah, maybe a little.”

“Yeah, fair,” Romeo pushed his head over so it was resting on Spec’s forearm. “I’ll just show it to her when we go on Thanksgiving break.”

The two of them were just hanging out in their room. They had a YouTube Let’s Play going on the TV, but they were also on their phones and doing other things on their laptops. Romeo was slowly invading the middle of the bed where their twin XL mattresses met, but if Specs didn’t say anything then he wouldn’t mind staying here for the rest of the night.

They do this sort of thing all the time, but Romeo would love to do it under different circumstances. Maybe as a boyfriend? He still doesn’t know exactly what he wants, he just knows who he wants to do it with.

* * *

David eventually left for his date with Jack, all too excited and happy. Jojo, Sarah, and Kath were all going back to the store to look at more for more fabrics. Sarah finalized the sketches for her project and now there were out hunting for specific colors and styles and less browsing around for ideas.

Jojo still hadn’t said anything to Sarah or Kath about her being trans. Her and Spot have talked about it a few times (and God, it was nice to talk to someone about it rather than keeping her mouth shut for her own good) and in doing so she’s figured out that she does want to tell her roommates. 

Jojo didn’t know how nice it was for someone to know about her until she was able to say things to Spot unfiltered. She wants that with more people too. No one better, or who she wants to know more, then the girls she’s been living with for the past year and been some of her best friends.

Sarah was going through aisles like they were nothing, handing off bolts of fabric to either Kath or Jojo to hold while she marks things off her list and looks for the next piece she’ll need. It honestly wasn’t bad and was kind of fun to run around a store under the whim of a twenty-one year old tyrant. 

Jojo was holding off on saying anything to either of them while they were finding the things that Sarah needed. Sarah went to the counter to have all the fabric cut to the sizes she needed while Kath and Jojo waited off to the side.

She was thinking about how she would tell them. Would she be weaseled out of it like Spot did? Probably not- Kath and Sarah would probably respect a little out-of-it before they got worried like Spot did. Jojo thought about telling them in the car, but then she didn’t like the thought of them turning around in the front seats and looking back at her. It felt childish from her perspective.

Jojo was preoccupied as they finished the rest of the shopping trip, thinking about when she would say it and how she would. They were checking out before she knew it, and they were on the way back to Sarah’s car (which she always parked at the back of the parking lot for some ungodly reason). 

“Jojo?” Sarah asked, loading the last of the things in the trunk of her car. 

“Yeah?”

“You feeling okay?” She slammed the trunk down then leaned with her back. “You got quiet and you only get quiet when you’re sick.”

Jojo shifted on her feet. “No, yeah, I’m feeling okay. I was thinking about some stuff. Don’t worry about it.”

“You want to talk about it, sweetie?” Kath fiddled with the tassel on her purse. 

Jojo took a deep breath. This is the opening she wanted; he nodded her head. “Yeah, can we?”

“Of course,” Sarah moved to get in the car and Kath was going towards the passenger seat.

“I’m a trans girl,” Jojo said, without thinking. “I wanted to tell you both I was a trans girl.” 

Both the girls stopped, before turning around to face Jojo. If she could hazard a guess, she would say they were surprised, at least a little bit. Then almost immediately there were arms around Jojo’s torso. With the movement range she had with her arms pinned to her sides, Jojo hugged her two roommates back.

“Jojo, seriously?” Sarah asked. Jojo could feel her breath on her exposed shoulder. 

“Yeah, seriously.” Jojo wiggled her arms out enough to wrap one arm around each of their shoulders. “I wanted to tell you all. I know we’ve been living together for over a year, and we’ve been friends for longer, and I should have said something sooner, but I really wanted to let you both know.”

“Don’t chastise yourself for not telling us earlier. I’m glad you told us.” Kath leaned away from the hug. “Thanks for telling us.”

“Thanks for the hugs.” Jojo took another deep breath, this time feeling instantly calmer. 

Sarah pulled herself out of Jojo’s arm. “I can’t believe you came out to us in a fucking Michael’s parking lot.”

They started loading themselves into the car. “It’ll be a fun story.” 

“Fair.”

Kath turned to face Jojo while she was getting buckled in the back seat of the car. “I think this calls for celebration. Culver’s anyone?”

* * *

After a successful, not interrupted date, Jack took Davey back to the dorm and up to the loft. Not many people used it, as Jack found out from living there. He suspects that most people don’t even know it exists, which means all the merrier for him. 

Davey was laying on the couch with Jack laying on top of him. They were both watching TV, but not really invested and they had the volume on low and they were talking about anything that came to their minds.

Davey hadn’t brought up the paper at all during their dinner, or after, which Jack appreciated. He’s stressed about everything and now Jack is capital i Involved in the situation. His picture was used on the cover of the paper, his name was used in the article. He was now the front man of this little endeavor and all of that responsibility, along with doing well in his classes and doing well in his job, was getting to be a little too much.

Laying on top of Davey on the couch was nice. They were both pretty tactile people, so all the contact is great for how they operate. Davey likes to keep his hands in Jack’s hair and run his fingers through it. He told Jack earlier that his hair was thick and soft, and it was nice just to rake his fingers back and forth. Jack wasn’t going to complain when a beautiful man was almost putting him to sleep with simple movements like that.

Jack started thinking about the paper. And the protest. He closed his eyes and rested his forehead on Davey’s chest. He thought that maybe if he could block out some of the sensation, he could block out the other thoughts. He did that for a moment.

No dice.

“I feel like I did something stupid, Davey.”

“What did you do?”

“With the protest and the paper and everything. I feel like it was stupid we did that.”

Davey pulled his hands away from Jack’s hair and moved them to rest on Jack’s back and hips. “Why do you think it was stupid?”

Jack rubbed his forehead on Davey’s chest. Davey started to rub Jack’s back. He liked the motion of it on his back. “I just have this feeling that everything’s going downhill from now. Nothing’s even happened but I have a bad feeling about it.”

* * *

Crutchie was in his and Jack’s room at his desk working on random homework assignments. He spent most of the day at Spot, Finch, and Mush’s apartment playing video games and generally hanging out until he had to dip and work on assignments (what kind of professor had his stuff due on Saturday nights, like a monster?)

He was actually getting some stuff done when he heard the notification sound from his email saying he had a new, unread email in his inbox. He switched over his tabs and refreshed his email.

There was a new email, from Housing & Residence Life. The subject line read _‘New Housing Assignment’_. The message itself was brief. 

_Dear Charles Morris,_

_This is to inform you that your new housing assignment has been processed. Your new housing assignment is in Irving Hall, room 118. You should expect to arrive in the next three days._

_Housing & Residence Life_

Crutchie read the email but got confused as it went on. He didn’t request a room change. He searched his email for other emails from Housing and Residence to see if something was up with his email and if there were emails as receipts to say that he was getting a room change. The emails that came up were all generic and average emails talking about future events or news with the dorm hall. 

Crutchie couldn’t have been placed in Irving hall, mostly because it was completely inaccessible to anyone with a wheelchair. It was a historic building, made in the 1800s. It had stairs to get to the front door and no ramp. They couldn’t renovate it heavily (like add a ramp) because it was marked as a historic building by the county. Crutchie could only get in the door if he used his crutches and took every step carefully and used the rails very often. He couldn’t move anything in that building or live there by any means.

The first thing he wanted to do was text Jack, but Jack was still out with Davey. Crutchie knew that Jack was nervous about the whole protest and newspaper deal. He isn’t Jack’s best friend since high school for nothing, he could see it on Jack. Crutchie decided to hold off on telling him. He’ll try to figure it out himself first.

He typed out an email to the head of the building, who would know about a room change, with a screenshot of the email and an request for an explanation- but he didn’t expect to hear something back soon. It was a Saturday night, and the work week didn’t start until Monday morning. Still, he would (hopefully) hear back on Monday.

Crutchie went back to his schoolwork, but now more nervous than before.


	13. Chapter 13

On Sunday Albert, Race, and Davey were all back to where they typically were when they hung out: over their controllers and cursing at each other.

Albert invited Davey over for what’s becoming a routine game day for them. Davey would get checked in by either Albert or Race and the two boys would try to beat David at Mario Kart and whine to each other every time they lost. They were now playing and teaching Davey how to play other games. They were working on Smash Bros (a game that Davey never really played before). 

Albert noticed that Davey was a lot more open than he was when he first was helping him and Race move in. Now Davey would rib and make fun of them a little more easily, which Albert almost always took as a sign that the people liked him and were having a good time. Davey definitely belonged with all of them if that was the way he showed he was getting closer to people.

When they had a break between rounds to get something to drink, Albert watched as David sighed and took a drink from his water bottle. Albert caught him staring at the bed post as he put the cap back on his bottle.

“What’s up, man?” Davey looked up at him and was confused. Race looked back at Albert and saw him looking at David, then snapped his eyes back to Davey. “You just sighed and, I don’t know, you don’t just like sigh for no reason. What’s up?”

Albert thought maybe it read it wrong, but Davey gave him a little half smile. “I was just thinking that I really like hanging out with you guys- and everyone too. I did not think that I would be making friends as quickly as I did- especially not hanging out with them all the time. I’m just, I guess, appreciative?”

“Yeah, dude, we like hanging out with you.” Race clapped Davey on the shoulder.

Albert nodded, agreeing. “I wouldn’t want to ice any other man myself.” 

David’s eyes narrowed. “You didn’t ice me; Katherine iced me.”

“Who do you think bought the ices that gave Kate the idea?” Albert tapped the side of his head, “Think smarter, not harder, Davey.”

Davey rolled his eyes, but he still had a grin on his face. “Actually, speaking of the party, Race, you stayed the night there, right?”

“Yeah, why?” 

“I didn’t see you claim any of the couches before we left. I just saw you go into Spot’s room and I never saw you come out. Are you and Spot together or something?”

Albert bit his lip trying to keep the smile down. Someone else noticed what he did. Maybe their group needed some fresh eyes to notice what was clearly going on between Race and Spot.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Race took a drink of his mountain dew and set it back on the counter they had their TV sitting on, “I was in Spot’s room for a bit, but I came back for the couch later.”

“So nothing’s happening between you two? I just thought there was because you two seem pretty close.”

Albert was feeling incredibly validated. Race shook his head, “Nope- nothing’s happening-“

Albert moved his head a little out of Race’s sightline and began nodding and mouthing to Davey, _Yes, something’s happening._

“-and Spot and I are just good friends.”

Albert could see Davey’s eyes dart to make eye contact with him, but they went back to Race’s quickly so Race didn’t notice. He saw what Albert was saying. He now had a partner in his mission. “Okay, I believe you. I just wanted to ask because it seemed like you two liked each other, but if I’m wrong, I’ll admit it.”

Race laughed, it was a little dry and humorless. “Yeah, man, you’re wrong. Sorry.”

Davey shook his head. “It’s okay.” He held up his switch controller, “Another round?”

* * *

Race continued playing Smash Bros with Davey and Albert, but his mind was less preoccupied with Isabelle moving with the movements on his controller and more on Spot again. Spot seemed to take up too much space in his head recently. 

Albert called him out a couple weeks ago for leaving the dorm and connecting that with seeing someone. Race didn’t know that Albo thought that much about where he was going and who he was going to see. Since then, he’s been a bit more careful in how he sees Spot. It’s dumb. It’s not like Spot or Race has a partner. It’s not like they have a real reason for sneaking around all the time. They were clandestine out of habit rather than need. 

Race has started thinking though. He’s tired of the sneaking and the secret texts and the things he’s had to keep secret. He doesn’t want to end things, but he wants to bring out everything in the open. Race wants to tell Spot he likes him, for real- that Race wants to hold Spot’s hand and be able to sit like Jack and Davey were at the party. He wants to be able to say, _Hey I’m going over to Spot’s_ when he leaves the room, or, shockingly, have Spot stay over in his dorm sometimes. It wouldn’t be too much of a transition. Or too much to ask, Race hoped.

Race thought about what Davey said: _it seemed like you two liked each other_. That means that Davey saw that Spot liked him back, right? Race wants to ask what Davey saw that led him to think that Spot likes him but asking that would show _interest_. Race can’t let himself show interest of any kind. He didn’t want to give anyone fuel to think that something happening between him and Spot- which is dumb because something _is_ happening between him and Spot. 

Ultimately, Race is thinking about asking Spot out, or telling him that he likes him. One or the other, Race hasn’t fully decided. All Race knows is that he’s done with staying the night to leave in the morning and having to turn his phone brightness down when Spot texts him and he’s with their friends. He wants the push and pull to be gone. If that ends with Spot just going back to being a friend then, Race shook his head, he will have to figure that out later. He just doesn’t want to sit waiting anymore. 

Spot isn’t here anyway. Spot is probably in his apartment or out with some friends of his. Race doesn’t need to worry about that when he has to destroy Davey, because even though he’s new at it, Davey’s catching on fast. Race will worry about Spot when he’s on his own.

* * *

Jack and Crutchie were getting ready for class on Monday morning. They started getting ready together when Crutchie’s classes were blocked off by construction and they actually started waking up at the same time and leaving the room and dorm together until they had to split off to their own classes. 

“Hey, Jack, could you talk to your boss about something for me today?” Crutchie asked, putting a binder in his backpack. 

“Yeah, sure,” Jack looked up at his friend, although a little confused, “What do you need?”

“I got this email from Housing about a room change, but I never put one in. It has my name on it and everything, and maybe I thought your boss would know something about it?”

Jack stopped. “Can I see the email?”

Jack watched as Crutchie pulled out his phone and opened the email. He gave his phone to Jack and Jack read over the message. There really wasn’t any information in it besides the room change. 

“Do you have a few minutes before class? He should be in his office right now.”

“Yeah, I got a few minutes.”

The pair of them packed up a little faster and made their way out the door. The head of the building was the Residence Director, and each dorm had one. It’s who all the RAs reported to and who handled most of the work in making sure the dorm ran smoothly. His office was on the first floor, which was convenient because Jack and Crutchie just had to go down the hallway to see him.

Jack knocked on the door. “Yes?”

Jack opened the door a little bit, “Hey, Kloppman, you got a minute?”

“Yes, I do. Come on in.” 

Kloppman was new to the school. He was a Residence Director at a different school in a different state, but he was new to how things worked here. He was nice enough, and he tried his best- which was all Jack could ask for, really. Jack opened the door and then held it open for Crutchie to come in behind him. “I don’t know if you met him, but this is my roommate, Charlie.”

Crutchie gave a little wave. Kloppman smiled in return. “What’s up, Jack?”

Jack tapped his fingers against his leg as he talked. “Charlie got an email about a room change that he didn’t request.”

“The email said I was moving to Irving Hall,” Crutchie added, “but that hall is inaccessible. I can’t even enter the building because of the stairs to get to the door.” 

Kloppman’s eyes widened a fraction. “That is, not good. Okay. Can you send me an email with the information?”

“I did Saturday night when I got the email, but I wanted to let you know in person too. It says I should be moved in by tomorrow night.”

Jack shook his head. He couldn’t believe something like this happened. He’s lived on campus for two full years and he’s worked for Housing for a year and he’s never heard anything like it happening- not without the resident actually requesting a room change themselves. 

“Okay, I’ll make some calls to see where it came from. Hopefully we can get it sorted out before tomorrow night.”

“What happens if it doesn’t get sorted?” Crutchie asked. 

Kloppman’s eyes shifted to the things on his desk- papers, pens, and a few photo frames. “Well, your fob that you use to get access to the building, it’s computerized from upper housing. They control what building you’re allowed into. If it says that you’re supposed to be living in Irving, your fob will probably stop working for this building and you can’t get back in unless you get checked in as a guest.”

The three of them sat in silence, thinking about that prospect. Jack thought about how hard it would be to check Crutchie in all the time. Sure, they both had other more casual friends in the building who could check Crutchie in, but it would be hard to do that for the time it takes to get everything figured out. Then he thought about where the hell a room change could come from if it didn’t come from Crutchie or Kloppman.

“Whenever you find out, could you let me know too?” Jack asked. 

“As long as Charlie consents, I can tell you too.” 

Crutchie nodded. “Yeah, Jack can know. I would immediately forward any email to him anyway. This makes it easier.”

“Thanks for the help, Kloppman.” Jack said, then pulled back at the door. “Now, we’ve got classes to get to. I’ll see you later.”

“See you later. I’ll try to get an answer by tomorrow afternoon.”

Jack and Crutchie left the office and left the building together. 

“Hey, Crutch, we’ll find out why. Kloppman’ll get it figured out.” Jack patted Crutchie on the shoulder.

“Yeah, I hope so. If not, I’ll probably just stay over at the Apartments with Finch, Spot, and Mush until it’s settled. Don’t worry about it too much, Jackie.”

Jack, despite Crutchie’s words, was going to worry about it- he’ll just add it to the list of things that he’s already worried about: classes, how he’s going to pass his classes without his accommodations, the face he’s the face of a campus protest, and Crutchie being maybe kicked out of his own room. No pressure or anything. 

He took a deep breath. “I’ll see you later?”

“Yeah.” Crutchie went right out of their dorm and Jack took the left. 

Jack put his earbuds in and started on his walk to his classes. He was already done for the semester and it barely even started. He could feel that today wasn’t going to be a good day to try to pay attention. It's a good thing he packed his laptop in his bag so he could dick around on something until he was done for the day and he could see Davey in the library.

* * *

“Can you just tell me about your day?” Jack took Davey’s hands and held them up so he could kiss them. Dave smiled fondly at the gesture.

“You want to hear about my boring day?”

Jack smiled. “I want to listen to you, and I just want to be distracted by other things. Tell me about your boring day.”

“Okay, but if you want to talk about stuff, I’m here and I’ll listen to you any time.”

Jack squeezed the hands he held. “I know.”

Davey began talking about his day. He started with how Kath was hogging the bathroom in the morning because she was taking forever in the shower, and how he likes to make breakfast but ran out of eggs so he had to go to Starbucks on campus to get his breakfast in the morning. 

( _Are you sure you aren’t bored yet?_ He asked, and very easily Jack responded, _no_.)

He then talked about his class and how he has completely lost faith that the professor will teach him anything he doesn’t already know, so he started just listening to music and working on other homework in that class. Then he was here, in the coffee shop. Davey also stopped getting coffee all the time when he realized that a lot of other people came into the library coffee shop just to do homework and not to buy anything to drink. He sat down and did his homework until Jack came to join him.

( _See, it was boring_.)

Jack smiled at him. Davey squeezed Jack’s hands. “Are you sure you don’t want to rant about anything? I’m all ears.”

Jack shrugged, “It’s not nothing you haven’t already heard before. I’m still stressed about the protest and being in the newspaper. And classes are really picking up and I don’t have my accommodations anymore, so I just need to keep myself in check.”

“That sounds tough,” Davey said, smiling a little sadly. “My accommodations were kind of a catch me if I fall behind. It sucks that you don’t have them, and you actually need them.”

“Yeah, but I’ll get through it.” Jack bit his lip, hiding a mischievous smile, “If my gorgeous boyfriend would help me study and give me many kisses to get through the horror that is homework.”

Davey shook his head at Jack. “I don’t know who this gorgeous boyfriend is, but your average-looking boyfriend would love to help you and give you kisses to help you study.”

Davey had to go back to class eventually, and after that Jack went back to his dorm to hopefully watch some YouTube videos and take a nap. 

Crutchie was in the room when he got back- packing a duffel bag with clothes from his closet. 

“Dude, what are you doing?”

Crutchie zipped up the duffel and shoved it under his desk, “If the whole housing thing doesn’t get figured out then I’ll need to get stuff together to stay at Spot’s apartment, so I thought I would pack up a bag just in case.”

Jack put his backpack on his desk. “You don’t have to worry about that. You won’t have to sleep over at Spot’s.”

“Jack, do you really expect Housing to get this figured out by tomorrow night?” 

“Yes.”

“Well we still haven’t heard anything back-“ 

Right as Crutchie was finishing his sentence, his open laptop on his desk made the distinct sound of an email notification. He wheeled himself over to the computer and opened his email tab back open, “It’s from Kloppman.”

Almost immediately Jack pulled his laptop out of his backpack and opened his email. In it was an unread email with his boss’s email as the sender. The message was straight and to the point.

_The room change came from somewhere in Upper Housing. They did the room change because apparently Provost Pulitzer asked for it himself, Upper Housing didn’t ask questions. I’m currently trying to get it fixed, but I don’t know how long that would take if it came from that far up. I will let you know if anything changes._

“Are you fucking serious?” Jack asked, still staring at the words on his computer. “Why the fuck would the vice president of the university want to change your room?”

Crutchie looked at his laptop screen, then back to Jack. He had an idea of why they would do that, but he didn’t want to say it out loud in case it was wrong. He closed his laptop and plugged it up to charge.

“Have you even met Pulitzer, Crutchie? This makes no sense.”

Crutchie waved his hand in a _so-so_ motion. “Jack, it kind of makes sense.”

Jack looked up at Crutchie. “What do you mean?

Crutchie wheeled himself closer to where Jack was sitting on his bed. “I don’t know if this is why, but you and I were the only people mentioned or quoted in Kathy’s article.”

Jack’s face was confused, then it went slack, and finally it settled on angry. It was like Crutchie watched Jack go through the stages of grief, but all in the wrong order.

“They can’t do this!” Jack’s voice almost sounded desperate. “They can’t just move you to a dorm that you can’t even get into!”

“Jack,” Crutchie tried to be as soft as he could, “Apparently he can.”

"I'm emailing Kloppman to fix it now,"

Crutchie just watched as Jack typed, more frantically than normal. He knew that this, objectively, was very bad. They were trying to silence them through separating Jack and him and putting him in an inaccessible building was just a punch to the message. A little 'fuck you' instead of XOXO. 

Another sound, from Jack's computer this time, came through. It was another email notification. Jack stopped truing and clicked through his email. Crutchie could see his eyes were darting across the screen.

"What's that email?"

Jack hesitated before answering. "It's, uh, an email from one of my professors about some assignments and stuff."

Jack closed his laptop. He grabbed his bag back from his desk and put his laptop in it. Crutchie watched him as Jack went to his closet and pulled out a hoodie before shoving it on over his head.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm gonna go out for a little bit, I don't know when I'll be back."

Crutchie could see the stress on Jack. It was probably the most frantic that Crutchie had ever seen him, but still Jack looked like he was trying to shove it all down. "Dude, just stay here."

Jack didn't respond initially. He just shoved stuff into his backpack. "No, I'm just gonna go drive a bit. Don't worry."

And with that Jack grabbed his keys and left without another word. Crutchie was left in the empty space of their room. It was like the aftermath of a tornado and Crutchie was left with the humming of their shared mini fridge.

Crutchie pulled out his phone and went to the group chat that had everyone in it.

_**Crutchie:** hey guys, something happened with the protest and stuff. Apparently the vice president of the university didn’t like what we were doing and put in a room change for me. _

_**Davey:** Wait, what the fuck?_

_**Spot:** ????_

_**Crutchie:** i’ve been moved to irving hall and if they don’t get it fixed by tomorrow then i can’t get back into mine and jack’s room without being checked in. hey apartment crew? can I stay with y’all?_

_**Finch:** Yea man we can get the air mattress for you_

_**Kath:** VP Pulitzer can’t just change your room without your consent. Can he?_

_**Crutchie:** apparently he can. jack’s boss told me that someone from upper housing was told to change my room by his orders so it can happen._

_**Sarah:** okay, what are we doing about that?? he can’t just change your room because we protested against campus??_

_**Race:** Where’s Jack? Shouldn’t he be in on this convo?_

_**Crutchie:** he left after i told him. i think he went on a walk or a drive or something. might not have his phone on._

David called Jack as soon as he saw Crutchie’s most recent message. He put it on speaker and just stared at Jack’s contact while he listened to the ringing. It didn’t immediately go to voicemail- so he didn’t have his phone off, but it just rang until it went to Jack’s voicemail- an automated message. He tried it again but got the same answer.

He went to snapchat and pulled up Crutchie’s name and typed out a quick message.

_**David:** Jack isn’t answering his phone._

_**Crutchie:** shit, really?_

_**Crutchie:** i haven’t tried to call him. lemme do it rn_

It was about a minute or two before he got another message from Crutchie.

_**Crutchie:** yeah he must have it turned off. it went straight to voicemail for me._

_**David:** It didn’t for me… Maybe he turned off his phone after I tried to call him twice._

_**Crutchie:** yeah maybe. if you don’t hear from him by like, 4pm tomorrow then we should be worried. just let me know if you hear anything and i’ll do the same._

_**David:** Yeah, for sure._

David got out of snapchat and went back to the full group chat. Everyone was talking about things they could do. David didn’t have any ideas.

_**Katherine:** I’ll try to see if I can set up an appointment with Pulitzer. Maybe actually speaking to him might do something._

_**David:** Yeah, maybe. Let’s hold the real things we can do until we can get everyone talking about it and on board. _

_**Spot:** Yeah, I agree with davey_

David locked his phone and laid back down in the back of the driver’s seat in his car. He just finished class and was on his way back to his apartment. He tossed his phone in the passenger seat and started his car up to go back home and lay down. It wasn’t his night to make dinner for the clan, which was a relief. He could lay in bed and hopefully not worry too much about his boyfriend.


	14. Chapter 14

It’s Tuesday. 

_**David:** Did he come back last night?_

_**Crutchie:** no. you haven’t heard from him?_

_**David:** No_

David sent Jack a ‘ _Good morning_!’ text just to see if Jack would respond. He didn’t.

He had to get up, get ready, and go to classes for the day- which is what he did. David did his normal routine for a Tuesday except he was vibrating with anxious energy. He took notes in class, but he didn’t pay attention to what he was typing or writing down. David was constantly checking the notifications- hoping that he just missed one, either from Jack or from Crutchie saying he heard from Jack. David and Jack only just started dating; he should not be this worried about him. Maybe it’s the clinical anxiety thinking for him. 

He finished his class easy enough and almost on autopilot he went to the food court. David didn’t typically meet anyone on Tuesday afternoons, but he always went to the food court anyway to get a bite to eat and work on homework rather than going home and making lunch himself. David got a chicken sandwich from one of the restaurants and went to find a seat.

David spotted Jojo and Spot and saw they were sitting in a booth to themselves. 

“Hey guys,” David greeted, coming up to the table, “Can I sit with you?”

“No,” Jojo made a slack face. 

David smiled. “Thanks Jo.” He scooted himself beside Jojo and started to eat.

“I saw that Jack still hasn’t responded in the group chat.” Spot said. It was a statement, but the way Spot said it, it felt more like an accusation. 

David dipped a fry in some ketchup. “Yeah. His phone is turned off, so he probably hasn’t seen the messages.”

“Do you know where he is?”

David shook his head. “He hasn’t answered anything, so I haven’t spoken to him since yesterday.”

Spot rolled his eyes and leaned back more into the booth and away from his sandwich. “I don’t like that he tucked tail and ran.”

“He didn’t tuck tail,” David defended, but his finger tapping disagreed with his confidence.

“What else would you call it?” Spot asked. “We all rallied up and where is he? Not here. Sarah said he didn’t show up to class today. They have a business class together and he wasn’t there.”

“Spot, that’s a little harsh.” Jojo interrupted. “It’s not even been twelve hours, give him some time.”

“Crutchie and I plan on seeing him tonight whether or not he responds to our texts, so we’ll be able to do something.” David took a bite out of his sandwich. “Anyways, less stressful, how are you all’s classes going?”

“You said less stressful, David.” 

“Mine are fine. I mean, there’s a shit ton of readings that are absolute BS and I will have written more papers than I ever had in a semester, but that’s just college, right? You write papers until you graduate or drink yourself to death?”

“How close are you to drinking yourself to death, Spot?” Jojo asked, a playful smile on her face.

“That depends on how many more writing intensive classes I have to do.”

David knocked his arm with Jojo’s. “What about you, Jo?”

She finished taking a sip from her drink. “Every day I have to write a new code is a day closer to death.”

“Perfect. This is the true college experience.”

_**David:** Sarah said Jack wasn’t in her class today. _

_**Crutchie:** okay, that’s a little more worrying. jack only ever skips like one class a semester._

_**Crutchie:** i have a feeling i might know where he is. my class ends at 3:30 if you wanna go there? it’s off campus and you’ll have to drive._

_**David:** Yeah, an idea is more than what I have. We can go. What building do I need to pick you up from?_

As soon as Crutchie’s class finished and Davey was able to get his wheelchair folded up broken down so it could go in the back seat, Crutchie was giving directions off campus and towards downtown. Every turn felt familiar, but David didn’t really go downtown for it to feel familiar. The only time he’s been downtown was-

“Wait, Crutchie, are you thinking about the bookstore?” 

Crutchie looked over at David a little incredulously. “You know about Medda’s place?”

“Yeah,” David said, nodding, “Jack took me there and to Denton’s on our first date.”

“Did you meet Medda?”

“Yeah, she was really nice, and from what Jack told me, she’s amazing. Of course, he would go there.”

“Then you know the way?” 

David drove the rest of the way, taking the turns himself rather than following Crutchie’s instruction. They arrived in minutes- the open sign clear on Medda’s door. Once Crutchie was out of the car, the pair walked into the store with a ding from a bell showing their presence.

Medda began to speak from behind the counter. “Welcome to-“ She turned and saw that it was David and Crutchie. “Charlie and… Davey right?” Davey nodded. 

“We’re actually looking for-“

“He’s in the back.” Medda nodded her head back to the door behind the counter- where she came from when David first met her. “He’s in a bit of a mood- I don’t know what happened, but I’m glad you two are here.”

Crutchie went first following Medda behind the desk and David followed. Behind the door, it looked much like any other inventory or stock room- there were books in boxes or in stacks. There were random things needed to run the store- receipt paper, stickers, signs to put up. There was also a shelf in the middle of the room currently being painted by one Jack Kelly.

He was wearing a plain white tank top- or it looked like a tee shirt was cut up to make it into a tank top. There were a few splotches of a dark muted green paint on his shirt and his arms. He had a thick brush about the size of his hand in his palm and he was painting the bookshelf a dark muted green that reminded David of the color that Denton’s walls were. 

“Jack, sweetie, you have some visitors.” Medda announced in a soft voice.

Jack turned around and David made eye contact with him.

“Hey man, you really had us worried there.” Crutchie said, wheeling closer to Jack. David heard Medda leave quietly and close the door behind her.

“I was just here. I needed to get out my head for a little bit. Medda’s always needing something done, so I thought I’d come here and give her a little help.” 

“That’s nice, but-” David went to sit on the table behind him. “Jack, why did you leave?”

“I just said I wanted to clear my head. This stuff was all getting to be a lot so I left. I skip a day of classes once a semester.”

“And no phone call?” Crutchie asked. 

Jack put the paint brush on a piece of newspaper that looked like he’s been using it as a palette. He crossed his arms over his chest. “Maybe I didn’t want to be found.”

They sat with that for a moment. David didn’t really believe that- but then again, he hasn’t known Jack that long has he? David felt a little better when Crutchie didn’t seem to be taking any of Jack’s shit either.

“Dude, what happened? There’s more to this isolation than me getting moved out of our room.”

Jack picked up the paint brush again and began to fill in the bookshelf more. He hesitated, and his back was to David and Crutchie, like he didn’t want to look them in the eye. “I got an email from Pulitzer.”

“That’s what that email was?” David looked at Crutchie with furrowed brows. Crutchie turned away from Jack to look back at David. “Jack got an email after we got the email about why I got moved. Jack said it was from one of his professors.”

“Yeah, well it was from Pulitzer.” Jack dipped the brush in more paint and did some heavy strokes down the side of the shelf. “He summoned me to a meeting about the protest and a ‘mix up’ with my scholarships.”

“He can’t do that.” David said, all certainty. Pulitzer can try to silence them through the means he can, but he can’t get scholarships removed. There’s more involved than a bunch of twenty and twenty-one year olds versus an old guy running a college campus. “He can’t just threaten your scholarships.”

“When are you supposed to meet him?”

“He said Wednesday, so tomorrow.”

“What are you going to do?”

Jack tossed the paint brush back down in the newspaper again. “Back down! What else am I supposed to do? If he takes away any of my scholarships, I can’t afford to go here! I’ll have to drop out and start working at a real job somewhere. I’d have to go home-“

Jack sat down at a chair in the back of the room, he was breathing in huffed and shallow breaths. David wanted to go over there; he wanted to hold him. He shouldn’t be taking this much weight on his shoulders.

“Jackie, calm down a minute, would you?” Crutchie went over to be beside Jack. “This isn’t just your fight. We’re all here too, you know.”

David thought that maybe this might be his turn. He stepped across the room and wrapped his arms around Jack’s shoulder and chest. Jack seemed to relax almost instantly, his breathing slowing more.

“You’ve got all of us.” David repeated. “And, I don’t think backing down will do any of us any good.”

Jack pulled a little bit out of David’s grasp. “What do you mean, Davey?”

“I mean,” David stretched out his words. “He drops your scholarships; we can fight that. He threatens you; we can fight that. Especially with emails as evidence and the word of mouth from Housing. Your boss told you guys pretty easily where the room change came from right?” Jack and Crutchie nodded. “That means that other people are saying that Pulitzer gave them the order. That’s a trail that people can’t deny.”

“What should I say in my meeting tomorrow, huh? _‘My friends and I are going to tell on you’_?”

“You tell him you aren’t backing down.” Crutchie supplied. “Tell him you’re going to make sure that people will hear about the threats and every issue that he’s trying to cover up on campus. Record it. Bring in your phone and put it in your pocket so we have evidence.”

Jack listened to that, he rested his head on David’s torso, not looking at either of them. “Crutchie, I don’t want to go back home.”

“I know, Jack,” Crutchie put his hand on Jack’s arm. “But you’ve got me- and we’re family. So don’t worry about what might happen. We just have to keep going.” 

“We’ll be there before your meeting,” David decided. He looked at Crutchie who nodded in agreement. “And we’ll be there after your meeting too. You don’t have to do any of this alone- and it’s not just on your shoulders. We’re here to take the weight too.”

Jack didn’t say anything after that, but David couldn’t feel the same tension in Jack’s body like he did before. 

After a few minutes of just resting together, the three of them left the back room together. Medda was still in the front of the store behind the counter, tapping on her phone. Jack apologized, saying he wasn’t going to be able to finish painting the bookshelf tonight. Medda stopped that quickly, saying that next week he could come back and finish it for her. 

Jack took the backseat on the ride back to campus. When they got back, it was getting close to dinner time. Rather than all of them go to the dining hall or the food court and hassle with food, Crutchie ordered a pizza (David venoming for his and Jack’s thirds of the pizza without telling Crutchie). They turned on the TV in their room to something that Jack hummed upon seeing. David didn’t watch a lot of TV, so he didn’t recognize it.

When the pizza arrived, the three of them ate together: Crutchie on the bed, David in Jack’s chair, and Jack on the floor with his legs crossed and in between David’s legs. They finished the pizza easily, and Jack and David watched the TV from the floor. 

When Jack wanted to lay down, David thought it was probably time for him to leave and get home himself. When Jack was climbing up the side of the bed to get on his top bunk, David went to Jack’s desk where he laid his keys.

“Davey, will you stay the night?”

David looked up at Jack perched on the bunk. Then he glanced down at Crutchie. “I will if Crutchie’s cool with it.”

Crutchie waved David off. “You can stay the night as long as you want to have fun sharing a twin XL on the top bunk with Jack ‘Blanket Hog’ Kelly. I’ll laugh when you fall off.”

“I am not a blanket hog!” Jack protested. David laughed and kicked off his shoes. 

“All of our high school sleepovers would beg to differ!” 

“Can I have some shorts or something?” Jack told Davey where he kept some of his basketball shorts and Davey got a pair and changed into them a little awkwardly- making it more awkward when Crutchie wolf whistled at him. 

“Shut up, Crutch, that’s my boyfriend. Get your own.”

“I’m trying, Jack, believe me.”

David climbed up onto the top bunk and climbed in next to Jack. He wasn’t too worried about falling off the bed- he’s never fallen off a bed before, but the height bothered him a little bit. David laid on the side of the bed that was against the wall. 

Jack tucked his face into David’s shoulder and David’s arms came to wrap around Jack’s shoulders and back. The TV was still on. They laid in bed for the rest of the night.

* * *

“Are you going to tell everyone?” Sarah asked. Kath was cooking dinner in the kitchen and Sarah sat at their kitchen table watching her and keeping her company. Kath shot her a confused look. “That Pulitzer is your father; are you going to tell everyone?”

“I am _not_ telling everyone that my father is the one going and making everyone’s lives living hell.”

“Not even Jack?” Sarah wrung her fingers in her hands. “He’s the one who’s face is leading this little campaign.”

“Not even Jack.” Kath didn’t turn to face Sarah. “Sare, I don’t want to ever associate with that man. I don’t want to even think about him being my dad. It’s not going to come up so there’s no point in telling anyone that he’s my dad.”

Sarah moved off the kitchen table and sat on the counter next to where Katherine was cooking at the stove so she could see Kath’s face. “If everyone finds out on their own, they’re going to take it a lot worse than if you were just up front about it.”

“Good thing that people won’t find out then,” Katherine scraped more at the pan in front of her. Sarah turned the burner Kath was using down on low, then grabbed the tops of her arms and brought her to stand in between her legs. Sarah moved her hands up from Kath’s arms to her jaw. 

“I love you.”

“I love you too.” 

“I’m just worried. I know you and your father don’t get along, and I don’t want everyone feeling upset because they think you’ve been keeping something from them.” Katherine was about to talk, but Sarah beat her to it. “And I know that you’re not keeping a secret from them, you just don’t tell anyone because he isn’t in your life. I just don’t want a catastrophe.”

“I doubt there will be a catastrophe.”

“C’mere,” Sarah pulled Kath into a kiss. “We can stop talking about it, because I’m getting hungry.”


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> we finally meet pulitzer

On Wednesday, Jack, Crutchie, and Davey skipped their classes. They woke up together, later than they typically do but still with enough time to get ready and eat something in the dorm before they would leave and go to the administration building. 

They ate a feast of cereal and later as they were getting dressed, Davey complained about the possibility of doing the walk of shame when we went back to his apartment later. Then Jack offered him one of myriad of tee shirts he’s gotten from campus events and local businesses, and David took one, but then Davey said that Kath, Sarah, and Jojo would all know where he was considering he hasn’t lived in town for over three months and where could he get a tee shirt.

_Stop worrying. They know we’re dating. It’s not a big secret we’re together._

After they ate and got dressed, it was time for them to head out and go to the admin building.

Jack held Davey’s hand through the walk, mostly to make sure that he didn’t pick at his nails, tap his fingers, or fiddle with his shirt and the inside of his pockets. He could squeeze Davey’s hand and Davey would squeeze back- a little reminder of what they told him yesterday: he’s not the only one in this. He’s got his best friend and his boyfriend by his side. 

Jack had been in this building before when he got hired as an RA and did all his human resources paperwork. This building is set in one of the most beautiful parts of campus- or was, rather. Now to the left of the building is blocked off metal fences because of construction. They arrived at the admin building and rode the elevator to the top floor.

When they got off the elevator there was a hallway, but it didn’t have any doors. It led to a bigger room at the end of it. Jack went first, then following behind him Crutchie and Davey. The room was a secretary’s office, a desk in the center of the room, a name placard on the desk, and the secretary herself sitting in a chair and typing on a computer.

Jack went up to the woman- Hannah, by her name tag. “Hi, I’m here for a meeting with Pulitzer.”

“Are you Jack Kelly?” She asked, having stopped her typing but didn’t look up from her computer.

“Yeah, that’s me.”

Hannah started typing again. “I will let him know that you are here, and,” She paused in her typing and looked Jack in the eyes over the glasses perched on her nose, “That article was really something. Whatever he says in there, I wanted to let you know that someone’s on your side.”

Jack smiled at her. “Thank you. It means a lot.” He glanced behind him at Crutchie and Davey. “Could my friends stay here during the meeting?” 

“Of course, I got chairs for a reason.” She gestured behind the door where there were a few chairs lined up against the wall- like a small waiting area. “I’ll let you know when Pulitzer’s ready for you.”

The three moved over to the waiting area, Jack and Davey on two of the three chairs and Crutchie in front of them, making a little triangle. They sat in silence, a little bit of an awkward one as they didn’t want to talk where Hannah could hear them, but Jack wanted to take up all the empty space in the air. Instead, Jack just drummed his fingers on Davey’s thigh and stared at the floor where Crutchie’s wheels met the floor.

After only a couple of minutes, Hannah cleared her throat. All three of them looked up at her. “Pulitzer’s ready for you.”

Davey squeezed Jack's hand and he got up from his seat. He went to the door and opened it.

Mr. Pulitzer was standing at his desk, looking over papers through glasses that were on his nose. He was wearing a suit, dark grey and a red tie that matched in shade to the University’s colors. Jack came into the office, a lot of darker colors and wood accents. It almost looked like a study in an older mansion. The only light from the room coming from the large open windows that looked out onto campus- the side of the admin building that wasn’t looking over construction. 

“Close the door.” Mr. Pulitzer spoke. He didn’t look up to him. Jack closed the door behind him. From the office feeling in the waiting area and the older style of a study it felt like Jack was in a different building completely. Not like his boyfriend and best friend were on the other side of the wall behind him. “Mr. Kelly. How are you doing this afternoon?” 

Pulitzer was being polite- but Jack was enough of a people person to know the difference between someone truly being polite and someone asking how you’re doing because it’s the thing people do to start a conversation. For some reason, Jack got the feeling it was more sinister than just a simple how-do-you-do. 

“I wish I could say I’m doing better.” Jack said, this voice completely covering any of the nervousness he felt. He acted flippant and taunting for most of his life- he could pull a little bit of it out of thin air. “But my friends and I aren’t doing so well in our classes. I think you know why.”

Pulitzer finally looked up from above his glasses to see Jack. He didn’t expect Jack to get into the business so quickly. “Well, Mr. Kelly, I first want to tell you that I don’t appreciate this stand you’ve taken against the university.”

Jack stepped closer to the desk. He put his hands in the pockets of his jeans. “I wish I didn’t have to. I love this university and these two years of being here have been amazing.” He took another step closer, just drew it out along with his words. “That was until multiple students had their class accommodations denied, you allow tenured teachers to bully and insult students in class, and you ensure that your campus isn’t accessible to wheelchair users.”

Pulitzer set the papers on the desk. “Our campus is perfectly accessible. We have a clear path around the construction-“

Jack shook his head. “That adds thirty minutes to a normal five-minute walk.” 

“Yes! More time gives you more opportunities to think. To enjoy our beautiful campus. It is gorgeous here.”

He spoke like he was right in his thinking. _More time to think? Enjoy the beautiful campus?_ Jack took his hands out of his pocket and started talking with them a little more intensely. Jack was angrier than before. “Until it starts to snow and gets freezing outside. Then a thirty-minute trip means having to trek through snow and ice to get to class everyday while the rest of us who are able to walk get to take the stairs in the pedestrian route.”

Pulitzer leaned over his desk, his arms supporting his weight. He snapped as quickly as Jack finished speaking. “I don’t appreciate the attitude, young man. Show me some respect.”

“I’ll show respect when I feel I’m getting it back.” Jack shot back almost as fast. “I know, personally, I’ve contested my denial of services. We reported professors, which was completely disregarded.”

Pulitzer slammed his hand against the table. Jack jumped back at the noise. “You protest and write a scathing article about our campus.” He yanked open a drawer on his desk and pulled out a stack of papers. When he slammed the papers on his desk, Jack saw that it was the newspaper- the one with his picture on the cover. “You realize this spread to some of our donors? To the people who keep our campus up and running?”

“Good. Maybe that can get you to change your mind about actually listening to us rather than ignoring what we have to say.”

Pulitzer crumbled the newspaper in his fist and threw it to the side of his desk. “I won’t have this libel against me!”

Jack stared at him and said the only thing that came to his head. “It’s only libel if it isn’t true.” Maybe he shouldn’t have said that.

Pulitzer ignored that statement. He leaned up from his desk, pulling down his blazer to stop it from bunching at his shoulders. He paused before he spoke again. “I also don’t appreciate that you pulled my daughter into this crusade.”

That was the only thing Pulitzer said that he didn’t actually understand. “What do you mean your daughter?”

Pulitzer scoffed in response. “Don’t act like you don’t know Katherine. You somehow convinced my daughter to write this article against me. I won't have you manipulating my family to attack me personally.”

_Katherine? His family?_ Jack tried to withhold his shock. He couldn’t think that Katherine would be doing anything with this person. He didn’t know what to say in response to that. Katherine was working with them against her dad?

“Katherine will be posting a retraction to her article. I’ve already set up a meeting with her- just like this one.”

Jack couldn’t say anything. 

Pulitzer took his pause as an invitation to continue speaking. “Now, that we’ve discussed it, here’s some things I need you to know. I have zero tolerance to this kind of blatant disrespect. You will leave this alone. If you don't- consider yourself expelled. You won't be, truly, your scholarships will be gone. You'll be fired by your on-campus job. Any program you apply for, consider yourself pre-denied. How would your crippled friend, Charles, feel? Wouldn't you want to graduate with him?”

Jack started breathing heavy- not out of anger and him not being able to keep it in, but out of fear. “You wouldn’t do that to Charlie.”

Pulitzer gritted his teeth. “Try me.”

Jack didn’t say anything else. He wanted to keep everyone else out of this. He couldn’t sacrifice Crutchie’s education- really his future, just because Jack did something stupid. He took a deep breath- still angry and thinking in all directions. Jack looked at Pulitzer- it was the most intimidating Jack had ever seen him. 

Jack did the only thing he could think to do. He turned around and left the room. As he left he slammed the door behind him, hearing the wall shake behind him. 

Davey jumped up after hearing the door open. “Jack!”

Jack couldn’t talk. He wanted to talk to Kath. He wanted to scream. He wanted to go on a run. And mostly, he didn’t want to be in the same building as Pulitzer. 

“Jack, slow down!” Crutchie called out. Jack stomped down the hallway. He could hear Davey and Crutchie following behind him. He went down the elevator and pushed the button, more with his fist than his fingers. As much as he wanted to run away, he couldn’t leave Crutchie and Davey behind.

Finally, they caught up. Crutchie was the first to ask. “What happened in there?” 

Jack didn’t want to answer that question, even more so to Crutchie. He turned to David instead. “Is Katie at home right now?”

Davey furrowed his brows, then he pulled his phone out of his pocket and checked the time. “Uh, yeah usually. She has early morning classes and is usually back by lunch.”

“I have to talk to her about something.”

“Okay, I can drive us there,” Davey said, speaking slowly. Jack stared at the elevator. “Can you tell us what Pulitzer said?”

Jack huffed. The elevator opened and each of them went inside. Crutchie pressed the button for the ground floor. “I really don’t want to talk about it.”

“But you need to talk to Kath?” Crutchie asked, slowly, like he was trying to understand. 

Jack _really_ didn’t want to talk about it. “Yes. Something about the article. Don’t worry, I won’t go disappearing again.”

Davey, Jack, and Crutchie all made it back to Davey’s car. Davey drove them back. Crutchie tried to make conversation in the car, but Jack was not feeling it. Davey stayed quiet.

When they finally got to Davey’s apartment, they took the elevator up to Davey’s floor and he took his key and unlocked the door and let everyone in. There wasn’t anyone in the living room. Jack walked through a little more and saw Kath at their square kitchen table with her laptop, notebook, and papers scattered across it.

“Katie,” Jack stood in front of the table. Katherine looked up.

“Hey, Jack,” She glanced over to Davey and Crutchie who were standing behind him. “What’s up?”

“Can we talk?”

Jack turned and asked Davey and Crutchie to go into his room. He asked Kath if there was anyone else home and she said there wasn’t. Jack nodded his head and took the chair that was closest to her and moved it to sit next to her.

“You’re Pulitzer’s daughter.” He said it without question. 

Katherine looked shocked, like she wasn’t expecting that to come out of Jack’s mouth when he came in. Jack guessed she wasn’t ready for that to come out of his mouth. Kath dropped her pen on her notebook and leaned back in her chair. “How’d you find that out?”

“He told me in a meeting I had with him. He told me that I manipulated you into writing the article to attack him personally.”

Kath groaned, leaning her head back. She put her hands over her face. “I hate him.” She leaned forward again and moved her hands away from her face and touched Jack’s forearm. “Oh my God, Jack, please don’t listen to him. He’s an asshole that I haven’t seen since I was fifteen years old.”

Jack tapped his fingers on his thighs. “I had that meeting with him today. And he told me he was going to force you to print a retraction.”

Kath scoffed. “As if! He can’t convince me of anything.”

Jack got quiet. He bit his lip, thinking about all the other things Pulitzer said- what Pulitzer threatened. “He also told me to stop everything that I’m doing. Or I would have to leave the university.”

Katherine shot up even further. “He threatened to expel you?!”

“No, not in those words.” Jack sighed. “He said I would lose all my scholarships and my job on-campus. He also brought up Crutchie. That’s when I left- I could do it.”

“Oh my God.”

“I can’t do this, Katie.” Jack could feel a lump grow in his throat, then get bigger the more he didn’t speak. The thought of leaving school and his job and all his friends really broke his heart. “I can’t lose my scholarships. I can’t lose my job. I can’t go back home if I drop out.”

“Jack, sweetie,” Kath pulled Jack into a hug. It was awkward because they were sitting in different chairs and he was leaned over a good portion of space. “I will make sure that you don’t lose your scholarships or your job. You won’t be going back home.”

Jack shook his head. He didn’t want to try anything to get himself in bigger trouble than he was. “Let’s just drop it. I don’t want to risk anything, okay? I don’t want to risk my college or my job or Crutchie’s anything.”

Katherine pulled Jack away from the hug and looked him in the eyes. In the most determination he’s heard in her yet, she spoke. “There’s a risk in doing anything important.” Katherine turned to the hallway where the bedrooms are and called out. “David, Crutchie, can you come back out here?”

Jack rubbed his face and scooted his chair away from Kath’s to where it was before he moved it. He took a deep breath to try to get rid of the diminishing lump in his throat.

Davey came through first. When he saw Jack, he spoke up. “Hey, is everything okay?” He sat down next to Jack and opposite of Kath and when he did, he took one of Jack’s hands and squeezed it. Crutchie wheeled himself into the space on Davey’s left so they were sitting on the same side of the table.

“Everything isn’t okay,” Katherine said, “but that just means we just have work to do.” 

Kath cleaned off the table, so it was only her computer and an empty page of a notebook. “Apparently I’m supposed to print a retraction to my article. Like hell that’s going to happen. I won’t let Pulitzer do anything to force people to keep their mouths shut.”

“What are we supposed to do? We tried to get the word out and we tried to get support- but it never left campus,” Davey said.

Katherine wrote something down in her notebook. “We need to get to someone off campus and see if they can actually do something.”

“What, like the city newspaper?” Crutchie asked. “I don’t know if that will do anything.”

Jack thought back to why Pulitzer was so mad in their meeting. He mentioned that the article reached someone- “Pulitzer said how your article got to some of the donors. That’s why he threatened to drop my scholarships.” 

“So we need to find out who the donors are?”

Crutchie let his hands fall on the table. “I gotta be honest, I have no idea how to find that out. I doubt there’s a list online of the people who’ve given money to the University.”

The front door opened. Jojo put her keys in the key bowl. She kicked off her shoes and slung his backpack off her shoulder and onto the floor. “What party’s happening here?”

Davey turned around. “We’re trying to find a way to actually make school administration listen to us about what they’re doing.”

From Davey’s left, Crutchie spoke up. “We’re thinking about how to get to the donors of the school and tell them what they’re paying for.” He graciously left out the meeting with Pulitzer and Jack being emotional.

Jojo took the last open seat to Kath’s right and Crutchie’s left. “Well, you have to go to Roosevelt.”

All four others looked at each other for recognition, but all of them were making a clear ‘i-don’t-know-who-that-is’ face. 

“Guys, he’s the person who funded the new rec center. In the first email we got about the pedestrian path they said they got a donation from a Roosevelt to start the construction. Look it up in your email and you’ll find it.”

Davey pulled out his phone and began typing. Jojo continued. “That’s why it’s going to be called the Roosevelt Recreation Center.”

“Yeah here it is,” Davey pulled up his phone to read from it. “’ _As we announced last semester, we have received a wonderful donation from alumnus Ted Roosevelt for our new Campus Sports and Recreation Center_.’”

“Alumnus Ted Roosevelt,” Kath said to herself, as she began to type on her computer. “I found the article from the city newspaper about the construction of the new gym. His name is mentioned there too. I wonder if we could find where he works or his email or something.”

“I bet we could.” Crutchie said, “You can find pretty much anyone online. I bet he has a LinkedIn, or at least a Facebook.”

They sat in silence for a moment. Jack looked at the people around the table and had a small smile on his face. “Is this a plan? Are we doing this?”

“No, we need more.” Davey squeezed Jack’s hand again. “The article was good, but we really need to step it up a notch.”

Kath nodded, her eyes on the table with a thoughtful look on her face. “You’re right, we need something. I don’t know what though. Something bigger than just something written down.”

“We could get everyone together and figure out something?” Jojo suggested, pulling out her phone, referencing the group chat.

They shrugged, then nodded. Getting everyone together to come up with ideas is better than just stewing in the room with just the few of them.

Jack nodded. “Yeah, let’s do that. We can all meet at Dentons. He’s got a back room that I can snag for a few hours.”


	16. Chapter 16

_**Jojo:** Everyone come to Denton’s in like an hour._

_**Jojo:** We’re making a plan about what to do that the university didn’t pay any attention to us._

_**Spot:** Finally. Is Jack going to be there?_

_**Jack:** Yeah, I’m there._

_**Jack:** Go to the door to the left of the counter, it’s a meeting room._

_**Kath:** Start figuring out cars and carpools now. Davey or I can give a ride if someone needs one but figure it out now._

* * *

While they were all still at their apartment, Jack made a phone call to Bryan asking for a favor. He asked to use the meeting room from the next hour until they closed for the night. Bryan said they could, _if_ he could call Jack in on a Sunday to work for the day. Jack agreed and he knew they had a place to go where they could all get together and figure things out. Kath, Davey, Jojo, Crutchie, and Jack all managed to get inside and fit in Kath’s SUV and they were off to Denton’s.

When they got to Denton’s, Bryan and a guy about their age were behind the counter. Jack came in and said Bryan’s name to get his attention. When Bryan looked up he came from behind the counter and gave Jack a hug.

“You’re the best man, thank you for doing this.”

“It’s honestly no trouble, Jack. It wasn’t booked for the night and I’m glad to fudge some of the rules for one of the best employee’s I’ve ever had.”

They went into the meeting room. There was a large, wood table that took up most of the space in the room, with chairs all around it. The room had a TV that was turned off, and Jack knew from working at Denton’s that people used the TV for presentations and other things. Each of them brought their laptops (with Jack and Crutchie needing to stop by their dorm to get theirs) and set up in the room, waiting for everyone else to come.

Sarah was the first to come, taking a seat next to Kath and greeting her with a kiss. “So, what are you all thinking?”

They each took turns explaining what they were thinking. Sarah nodded through the entire explanation and took each person sounding off in stride. 

“Okay, that sounds like a plan. We need to find more donors, yeah? 

“Jojo’s on that,” Davey gestured to Jojo, who’s been typing in between people talking. “She actually knows about computers and the internet and stuff like that, so she’s on it.”

“So we’re just waiting on everyone else to show up?”

“Pretty much,”

They talked about other things and slowly more and more people arrived. Specs, Romeo, Race, and Albert all came in together and made the table mostly full. In a few minutes Spot, Finch, and Mush all came in together as well. They held off on explaining everything again until everyone got there, and each chair was full. 

Jack stood up. He was at the head of the table, so everyone’s attention was easily drawn to him. “So here’s what happened. Pulitzer threatened to take away all my scholarships, fire me from my job, and force me to drop out of the university if we didn’t stop.”

A few voices overlapped with the same sentiment. He can’t do that!

“Apparently he thinks he can. But we have to do something- this is important. Right now, here’s our plan.”

Jack started off explaining that Pulitzer was mad that Kath’s article got into the hands of some of the university’s donors. He said that they needed to do something bigger than just an article in the school newspaper and they need to make sure that it ends up in the hands of some of the larger donors.

“Jojo's trying to find more donors to the university.” Jojo did a royal like wave to all their friends. “But, we need to find something bigger and better than an article in the school newspaper.”

“What about the city newspaper?” Race asked, then he turned to Katherine. “Don’t you have connections through the school newspaper staff?”

“I do, but we don’t know if just the article will be enough. We’ll need something to go along with it, but I can make a call really quick.” She looked over to Davey. “Do we want to change our mind on that?”

Davey tilted his head, thinking it over. “Well, it won’t hurt.”

Kath got up from her chair and went back into the coffee shop. Davey went to pull out his laptop. “We should probably have someone writing down ideas so we can keep track of stuff.”

“No, dude, let me.” Romeo brought his own laptop out of the backpack he bought. “I’m a note-taker at my job, I can do it faster and better than you.”

“I won’t argue.” Davey closed his laptop.

“What about a video?” Spot asked. “You know, something short and that can be easy to share. You can put videos on Instagram stories and it’s easy to show and put places if the video is less than a minute long.”

“That doesn’t sound bad,” Albert said. “You see people share stuff like that all the time. Hell, I’ve shared some with informational videos before.”

“What do we need to say?” 

Davey spoke up, “We need to say that the school isn’t accessible anymore, and something about how the university is ensuring that their students don’t succeed. If that gets to people who support the school, they’ll drop it.”

“That’s smart.” 

Kath came back in. “I might be able to get a small article in the opinion section. It definitely won’t be front page, but it wouldn’t run until Sunday because that’s when their paper comes out.”

“How do you feel about writing a script for a video?” Jack asked her. “We can have Crutchie or Davey read it-“

Crutchie interrupted him. “No, dude, you have to say it.”

Jack shook his head. “Why me?”

“You’re the leader of this thing, dude,” Finch said from beside Albert. “I don’t mean that like you got us all together, but your face was on the newspaper being pushed by cops. You have to say it.”

“It would mean more coming from Crutchie,” Jack argued. He didn’t want to be the face of this thing. He didn’t want to have everyone depend on him again. He couldn’t be doing this all by himself again. “I don’t-“

“How about we’re both in the video then?” Crutchie grabbed Jack’s wrist to have him slow down. “If it’s both of us we can do it together and they can see the people it’s affecting. I’m visibly disabled- that means something.”

“Okay, yeah, we can do that.” Crutchie squeezed Jack’s wrist before letting go. Jack could hear Crutchie telling him what he said yesterday, _You don’t have to do any of this alone_.

“So we’re writing a script. We can film it tonight on someone’s phone- who has the best camera?”

“I do,” Specs said, holding up his phone. It was a new model of the iPhone. “After having to film a bunch of homework for ASL class, you need a good camera.”

The door opened, and in came Denton with a stack of plastic to-go cups for iced drinks and a pitcher of water. “Hey, I thought you all could use something to drink.”

“Thanks, Bry,” Jack said, taking a cup. Bryan continued and set the pitcher and cups in the middle of the room. “You don’t have to take care of us like this.”

“Too bad I want to.” Bry wiped his hands on the apron tied around his waist. “What are you all up to?” He took a glance down at Jojo’s computer in front of him. “Ted Roosevelt. What are you all doing looking him up?”

“He’s one of the largest donors to the university.” Crutchie told him. 

“We’ve been threatened to keep some of the university’s issues to ourselves. We’re trying to reach some of the donors to tell them about it. Hopefully something will change.” 

“Hmm,” Bryan tapped his fingers on the back of Jack’s chair, “What’s been happening?”

“We’re having accessibility issues. They’re ignoring things that we need for our classes. They’re firing all the note-takers for the Deaf students and they won’t fire a teacher for being an asshole to their students. And with the construction for the new rec center it isn’t accessible to wheelchair users at all.”

“Oh my God, that sucks. Have you don’t anything about it yet?”

Katherine grabbed her backpack and put it in her lap to dig in it. After a moment, she pulled out a folded-up newspaper. She handed the newspaper over to Bryan. “This got in the hands of some of the university’s donors. The Vice President, Joe Pulitzer, didn’t like it. He’s the one trying to keep us quiet.”

Bryan unfolded the paper and looked at the front cover. “Wow, Jack, you didn’t mention this. Do you mind if I borrow this?”

“Go ahead,” Katherine.

“Thanks,” Bryan left the room, starting to read the article.

“Okay, let’s get back to it. What do we need to say exactly?”

* * *

David couldn’t help but feel a little accomplished. He was sitting in the middle of the room while everyone around him was working towards something together. At the back to school bash, it was all thrown together- happening just on a whim and barely with a plan. This was planned- they all came together with the purpose of doing something. They _are_ doing something. 

David didn’t do any of this in the past two years. He was just riding the wave of classes and weekends until it was time to go home for holidays and breaks and he would do it all over again. It felt like he had a purpose here.

Jack, Katherine, Crutchie, and David are still trying to figure out what to say. Jojo’s finding donors and their emails and compiling a list for them to use, now with the help of Mush. Sarah, Finch, and Romeo were doing more research on their laptops on other things they could do. Spot, Race, Albert, and Specs were all coming up with other ideas because they could never be on the shortage of those. 

“Jack, just start talking and we’ll get what you need to say. We don’t have to record or write anything down. You find the right way to say something by practicing it a bunch of times.” Crutchie suggested. 

“But Katherine’s better at words than I am.”

“I’m good at writing,” She said. “That’s why I’m on a newspaper staff and a journalism major. But you’re better at being conversational, and you hit things home without trying. That’s why you’re good at your job. You care. I don’t think I can do that from behind a laptop.”

“Just try it Jack.” David said. 

In the past, David’s had a few classes with speeches or presentations. He would practice all the time in front of the mirror or to his webcam and listen to them repeatedly. It was always one of the first ones that took him by surprise and was better than all the rest. All of this to say, as sly as he could, David set up his phone camera at Jack.

“Fine,” Jack tapped his fingers and bit his lip in thought.

Jack was sitting on the table facing them, only because he can’t stay in one position for too long. David set up his phone against his water bottle in landscape mode. He couldn’t really check that the camera angle was the best, but it would work.

“So we tried to show the university administration that we won’t put up with not being treated as unequal students. They threatened to force me to drop out of school and fire me as an RA on campus. Whatever. I’m just tired of fighting this. I’ve been struggling in my classes because I don’t get accommodations for my ADHD. It was denied because they have new heads for the Student Accommodation office. Almost everyone with a legitimate reason got turned away this semester because ‘their paperwork was out of date’ or their ailment wasn’t severe enough to warrant help; some people didn’t even get a reason why. They’re firing note-takers for the Deaf students, knowing they work better with human note-takers in their classes with them. They’re also blatant in making a pedestrian path through construction that people in wheelchairs can’t use.

“There are more students that need accommodations than people recognize. Yes, we need to make campus more accessible for wheelchair users, but accessibility is more than just ramps. Deaf students need notetakers and interpreters. Students need to be able to have their identity without feeling like they aren't enough to have a diagnosis. Some students need extra time for tests or assignments. We all deserve an equal shot at being a student and being successful.”

Davey just stared up at Jack. He seemed to be finished but still had a thoughtful look on his face, that he had more thoughts swirling around but could catch any to voice them. Jack seriously didn’t have enough confidence to say that he could speak- insisting that they write something for him and Crutchie to say, but then that comes out of his mouth like it was nothing.

“Dude, are you serious?” Katherine asked. “That was… amazing.”

“You want Katherine to write something better than that, you’re not getting it.” Crutchie said. Then he looked over to Katherine in a little bit of alarm. “No offense.”

“None taken.”

Jack looked a little confused, but he had a smile on his face. “Really?”

“Yeah, Jack,” David put his hand on Jack’s knee and squeezed. “Really.”

“Aw man,” Jack grabbed David’s hand and squeezed it. “Now I kind of wish someone recorded it so I can see it.”

David smirked. “Well…” He grabbed his phone from where he set it up on his water bottle and stopped the video. “I might have recorded it.”

Katherine smiled a little too gleefully and grabbed David’s phone out of his hand. “David, you’re a genius!” She took the phone and started to rewatch the video.

“Davey, you sly dog, you.” Crutchie said. “But that was really smart, I’ll give you that.”

“Well, I learn best from watching what I say and reworking it. And usually the first couple I do are the best ones anyway. I thought it would be the same.” David looked back up at Jack. “You aren’t annoyed, are you?”

Jack grinned down at David, and David couldn’t help but smile back. “No, I’m not. I just didn’t realize my boyfriend was so sneaky.”

“Well, I’m only sneaky for the greater good.” Jack leaned down and gave David a small kiss. 

Katherine put the phone down on the table in between the four of them. “Jack, you sound really good in this. We honestly could just use this video and be done with it.” 

“Are you sure? I don’t want to rush anything. If we rerecord it and give some of it to Crutchie-

“No, it’s great on its own. We could use that now.” Katherine took David’s phone again. “I’m going to airdrop this to myself so I can put it up on my laptop.”

“Go ahead.” 

The door opened from behind them, and again, Bryan came into the room. He didn’t come in with drinks, but rather he came in and immediately tapped Jack on the shoulder. “Jack, I have something you might want to see.”

Jack got up. Bryan looked at the rest of them, then said, “They should probably come too.”

Jack turned to the rest of them in the room. “Hey guys, we’ll be right back.”

They got a response of acknowledgement and Jack, David, Katherine, and Crutchie all followed Bryan out of the room. They went back out into the main seating area of the coffee shop and Bryan led them to a round table that had a few chairs around it. Each person came around the table, Bryan next to Jack and Crutchie and Davey next to Jack and Katherine.

“Now, I have someone on the phone who would like to talk to you, Jack.”

David didn’t think that sounded good. Bryan handed his phone over to Jack and he took the phone and put it up to his ear. 

“Hello?” 

David glanced at Bryan, who seemed to be holding back a smile, then to Crutchie and Katherine, who were all as confused as he was. “Yeah, this is him.”

Jack’s face went slack. “Mr. Roosevelt?”

David’s head shot up, not even realizing he was hanging it or that he was slouching at all. He whispered to Bryan, “Mr. Roosevelt?!”

“Yes, sir. Thank you for giving us your time.” 

Crutchie started patting his thighs in excitement. “What is he saying?”

“Sir, do you mind if I put you on speaker so the people with me can hear what you have to say?”

Jack listened for a moment, then put the phone on speaker and held it in the middle of the table so everyone could hear. 

_“Well, Denton and I go way back. We were in the same fraternity back in our college days. He sent me the article you appeared in and it was an incredible appeal if I do say so myself.”_

“Thank you!” Katherine said, a smile on her face.

_“Now I hear these aren’t the only issues happening around campus?”_

“The article covers most of what we know with what’s happening on campus. I’ve also been threatened to keep quiet about what’s been happening. I was told by Vice President Pulitzer that I would lose all my scholarships and my job on campus as Resident Assistant- all of which would force me to drop out of college.”

“Hi, Mr. Roosevelt,” Katherine started. “I’m Katherine Plumber, who wrote the article in the school newspaper you read. Mr. Pulitzer also said that I should be printing a retraction to my article.”

_“That simply won’t do.”_ A cough came through the speaker _. “Is there anything else we need to know?”_

“Sir, hi, I’m Charlie Morris,” Crutchie introduced. “I was quoted in the article. I’m the one who’s been experiencing the most trouble with the construction and the pedestrian route. After I was quoted in the article, Pulitzer made a person in the Housing Department move me to a building that isn’t accessible through a wheelchair ramp. Irving hall?”

_“I know that building, yes, I actually lived there my first year at school. I can see why that’s troubling. Have you done anything to help your cause along?”_

“Hi, sir, I’m David Jacobs. I haven’t written or been quoted or anything I’m just here helping along-“ Mr. Roosevelt laughed at that. “-We did film a video, though it hasn’t been put out yet, and Katherine talked to the city newspaper about possibly running a story for the next edition, although we haven’t set anything in stone with it yet.”

_“If you can, I would like to see that video. Can one of you write my email address down?”_

Bryan held out a permanent marker to Katherine. She pulled up her sleeve and held the marker to her inner arm. “Yes, I can, sir.”

Mr. Roosevelt began to rattle off his email address and Katherine wrote it on the inside of arm. After he finished, Katherine capped the marker and handed it back to Bryan.

_“Now, I will be contacting Mr. Pulitzer about this immediately; I’ll be there talking to him by the end of the week. These are actions which I cannot stand behind and honestly refuse to accept from my alma mater. I also know some of the other donors, and we can speak to him together about these allegations. In the hands of your generation, the future of your university will be bright.”_

“Thank you.” Jack said, still with a bewildered smile on his face.

_“Now, if you don’t mind handing the phone back to Denton. We need to arrange plans for when I’m coming to town.”_

Jack grabbed the phone, turned the speaker phone off, and handed it back to Bryan, who took it and put it up to his ear. “Thank you, Ted. I’ll let these kids get back to what they were doing.”

They all stood up from the table and went back to the meeting room. Each of them stayed by the door and didn’t get back into their seats. Everyone else in the room was still at least slightly working. Specs, Spot, Race, and Albert were all still talking, although Sarah, Finch, and Romeo had joined them, with their laptops pushed to the side; they were also laughing. Mush and Jojo were still at their computers, but they were talking more than typing. David didn’t blame them though. It’s easy to get off track when all your friends are working together.

David knocked on the door behind him. “Hey guys.”

Everyone’s heads turned to the four of them. Jack stepped forward a little bit. “Um, so we told Bryan, the owner here, what we’re doing, and turns out he’s friends with the person donating all the funds to the new rec center. Bryan called him up, sent him Kath’s article. He’s on our side and he said he’s giving Pulitzer a piece of his mind by the end of the week.”

“The end of the week?” Spot asked from his seat. “It’s Wednesday.”

Crutchie finger gunned right in Spot’s direction. “Exactly.”


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> they finally get their ish together

“So we’re done? With all of this?” 

“I mean, I don’t want to drop everything. I don’t want to put trust that Roosevelt can get all of it done, but for right now. Yeah, I think we did it.”

There were a few high fives being passed around. David took Jack’s hand and interlocked their fingers. 

“I actually need to email Mr. Roosevelt, before I forget.” Katherine sat back down at her laptop and started typing while looking at the ink on her arm. 

“Romeo has all of the ideas we got written down in his notes.” Specs said. “He can email the Google Doc to anyone.”

Jojo added. “It also has the list of the donors we found.” 

“You all are amazing. I owe you for fifty-two years for this.”

Race stood up, throwing his backpack over his shoulder. “Nah, man. There’s no owing. We were all in on this. But, it’s dinner time now, and I’m starving. Who all wants to go to Taziki’s?”

“I’m your ride, dude,” Spot said, gathering the things he had out on the table into his backpack. “Did you ask me to drive to Taziki’s?”

“No,” Race smiled, “But you want to go, don’t you?”

“Yes, asshole. Who else is in?”

Pretty much everyone agreed on going, all gathering their things and figuring out carpool and seats again even though they were texting it not even a few hours ago. Katherine gave her keys to Jack, saying she was going to ride with Sarah. Then Jojo hopped in Sarah’s car so it was just left with Jack, Crutchie, and David, who by David’s watch, have almost spent a whole twenty-four hours together. Finch and Mush traded Race with seats in Spot’s car, leaving Spot and Race alone with Specs, Romeo, Finch, Mush, and Albert all in Romeo’s car.

“Spot, man, I love you and we’re roommates, but you’re such a shitty driver.”

When all the cars were figured out and everyone’s backpacks had been packed, they all headed out of the meeting room. Jack gave Bryan a huge hug before he left, saying to call him when Roosevelt came down (to thank him in person) or whenever he needed a shift covered. They all left and found their cars. 

David was really excited to just get some food and hang out with everyone without the weight of what they needed to do hang on them for the night.

* * *

Race climbed into Spot’s passenger seat and immediately hooked his phone up to Spot’s aux as he was getting situated behind the wheel and getting the car started. Race didn’t think Spot was an actively bad driver, he just tended to go a little fast and, on more than one occasion, started a drag race with someone at a red light. He wasn’t a bad driver, more of a reckless driver, but Race really didn’t mind. Especially if it was just going to be the two of them for the journey.

Spot rolled his eyes when he went to grab the aux and saw that Race already had it, but he didn’t try to take it back from him. Taziki’s wasn’t a far drive, but it was across town so it would be a little bit- well less time when Spot was racing like he always does. 

Spot got out of his parking space and started driving. Race turned his music down low so he could say something. “Are you going to find someone to race on the way there?”

“No, I’m not.” Spot turned his turn signal on and began to turn out of downtown. “For a guy named Race, why do I have the reputation of racing people in the streets?”

“Because you’re the only person that we all know who has actually drag raced before. It’s only a surprise you haven’t been pulled over yet.”

Race smiled at Spot, who stole a quick glance at Race before turning back to the road again. 

Spot bit his lip. “Hey, Race?”

“Yeah?”

“Can I ask you something?”

Race turned more towards Spot, adjusting the seat belt against his chest. “Yeah, ask away.”

Spot glanced over at Race again, this time a little longer before his eyes went back to the road. “I know, we’ve been doing this thing between us.”

Race’s eyes widened a little bit. They don’t _talk_ about the thing. They have _never_ talked about the thing. Race’s mind started going faster on where Spot was going when he started with _that_. “Yeah…”

“Would you go out with me sometime? For real?”

Race’s heart just about stopped. He sat up more on the edge of his seat. “What?”

Spot just asked him out. Spot just _asked him out_. _Spot_ just asked him out. 

“It’s totally chill if you don’t want to. I just- It’s okay if you want to keep things the way they are. Or even if you want to stop-“

“I do not want to stop!” Race said, to stop Spot’s train of thought immediately. “Yes, I’ll go out with you!”

“Yeah?” Spot turned back to Race, then immediately smiling. “Okay, cool.”

“Cool.” Race leaned back a little more in his seat. He bit his lip. He had been agonizing all year about Spot, and in about two minutes completely solved the problem Race has been having all semester. “I’ve been wanting to ask you out all semester, just so you know.”

“Wait, really?” Spot whipped his head to look at Race.

“Yeah, really.”

“Why didn’t you?”

Race thought about his answer. “I was being an idiot.”

“So, nothing off than the usual then.” 

Race gasped in fake offense and punched Spot on the arm. “Don’t be a dick.”

Spot didn’t say anything back, but after he went to shift the gears in his car, he took Race’s hand from his knee and held it on his thigh, so Race’s arm was stretched over the console. Race didn’t say anything, he just smiled, and looked out the window for the rest of the drive.

* * *

When they all got to Taziki’s, they went to a different dining area than the one David had been to before when it was just Sarah, Katherine, Specs, Jack, Crutchie and him. Off through a little spot on the wall was another dining area with larger tables. Jack, Crutchie, and David were the first to arrive and Jack and David set on moving the tables so that they would all have enough room. Spot and Race came through not too long after and helped them the rest of the way and with moving all the chairs. 

Everyone else arrived not soon after, everyone in line at the counter one after the other, almost everyone ordering the same thing (gyros) but each edited to themselves- David didn’t get any onion, Albert didn’t get any tomatoes, Finch got his with extra cucumber.

They all sat back down and, with probing by Romeo and Specs, Jack started talking more about what happened with Roosevelt and Bryan. David was half paying attention, because when he looked past Jack, he saw Race and Spot sitting together, and their chairs were almost on top of each other. David took out his phone and went to Albert’s contact.

_**David:** Dude, look at Race and Spot._

Albert checked his phone and David watched as he did a quick glance in front of him where Race and Spot were sitting across from him.

_**Albert:** something has to be going on!_

_**David:** Yeah, they’re being way too obvious now._

David put his phone away and went back into Jack’s story- but when he turned back in the story changed to something about Bryan. Jack was laughing and was talking about steamed milk spilling on someone. Romeo started telling a similar story from when he worked in a Mexican restaurant in high school and worked during breaks and he had a hot plate on his arm. It went back to a normal group hangout really easy and everyone was talking in little groups.

The only time it was quiet was when the food came out, and everyone was digging in. The most that was said was about how good the food was, or to pass the taziki sauce down the table for someone else to slather on their gyro or fries. 

David was enjoying his food. He glanced over at Jack who was saying something to Race on the other side of him. He had some of the taziki sauce on the side of his face where he coated his gyro in it. David waited for a beat in their conversation before taking his finger and wiping it off Jack’s face.

Jack turned his head and looked over David’s face before smiling and leaning to kiss him. It doesn’t escape David’s mind that this is where he met Jack before the semester started. He thought Jack was cute, but it didn’t really go past that, but who would have guessed. It’s not even midterms yet, and David has a boyfriend and a bunch of friends. 

When Jack pulled away, David went right back to kiss him again. When he was done, he leaned back. 

“What was that for?”

David shrugged. He knew exactly what it was for, but he didn’t feel like explaining it all right now. “I just like you.”

“Good thing I like you too.”

A napkin came in between them. Jack and David’s heads both turned in the direction to where it came from and saw Mush. “Stop it! I need someone to settle this argument between Jojo and I.”

David turned and was back to halfway listening. He just put his hand on Jack’s knee and gave it a small squeeze and Jack’s hand came to sit on top of it not a moment later. 


	18. Chapter 18

On Friday afternoon, Jack met Mr. Roosevelt personally, because at his request, Jack was there when he ripped Pulitzer a new one. By Sunday, Mr. Wiesel was demoted and moved to a different department in administration and had significantly less power in his new position. Both Mr Delanceys, with this being their first semester working at the university, were asked to step down from their positions. The Office of Student Accommodations was currently going through the effort of going through all the students who were denied services and redoing all the interviews and reviewing all the paperwork- hopefully every one who needs their accommodations will have them by midterms. 

David heard of all of this through Jack and through Romeo, who still works for the Accommodations office. He said that, for now, his job was safe because they decided rather than getting rid of all the in-person note-takers, by letting the students who need the note-takers decide if they want to use a real person or the computer text-to-speech software. 

Even Crutchie was having a better time. The school was able to make a smaller, wheelchair friendly route through the construction which means that Crutchie didn’t have to wake up obscenely early, or sleep somewhere else, just to get to class. 

David’s not even super stressed about his classes, which was different than normal. David thinks that the past two weeks were so stressful that even the boring stuff from class can’t get him too worried. He’ll make time to do assignments or take tests. 

At the end of their school week, on Friday, Jack invited David back to Medda’s. This time not to look around, or to hang out in Medda’s second floor, but so Jack could finish painting the bookshelf he left the week before, along with more shelves and random things Medda needed done and Jack didn’t mind doing. 

At first, David helped with the painting, then Jack was watching him do brush strokes a little _too_ haphazardly and Jack said that David could just keep him company while Jack painted. 

“How have Spot and Race seemed to you, Davey?”

“Actually, kind of cute.” David shook his head. “I still can’t believe you didn’t see anything going on between them.” 

“They weren’t that obvious.”

“Albert and I thought so!” David nudged Jack a little bit. Not enough to mess up his painting but enough to make Jack feel it. “They were super obvious, and I’m glad that they figured out whatever was going on.”

“Did I tell you what was going on between them?”

David sat up a little bit. “No! You didn’t. When did you weasel that out of Race?”

“The other night. He and Romeo came by to mooch of our PlayStation and I made him tell me before he was allowed to use it.”

“So, what was it?”

Jack stood up straight and went next to David to get another small paint can. “They were totally friends with benefits for, like, a year and a half.”

David’s jaw dropped. “Seriously?” Jack nodded, trying to hide the grin from his face. “That long?”

“Yep, at least that’s what Race said. Although we were all sworn to secrecy. You can’t tell anyone.”

“I won’t.” David tucked his legs under the table he was sitting on. “That’s so long to be doing that though.”

“I know. Race told us he was so relieved when Spot just asked him out.”

“I’d be like that too.”

Jack turned a little, so he was facing David, but still painting on the side of the bookshelf. “Speaking of our friend’s relationships, are we ever going to talk about what Specs and Romeo are doing?”

David held up his hands in surrender. “Man, I’ve already tried with Specs too many times to ask Romeo out. I don’t know how much longer I can point out the obvious until my head starts to explode.”

“Crutchie and I’ve been trying to do the same thing with Romeo. No dice either. He won’t even admit that pushing the beds together in their room is a little bit more than platonic.”

“Specs won’t either!” David stood up from his spot and looked at how Jack was doing with the paint. “It would be funny with how blind they are if it weren’t more annoying. You missed a spot.”

Jack scowled and gave David a little push away from the shelf. “Let the master work in peace. Maybe we should very kindly force them to be together.”

“Maybe after midterms. I’m piled with homework; I do not have time to be making a plan to get two of our friends together.”

“Ugh! Midterms, don’t remind me.” Jack painted over the spot that David pointed out. “Davey, will you do me a favor and shoot me before I have to take a midterm for my accounting class?”

“No, I won’t. I’ll be out of a boyfriend and that’s not something I want to wager. Sorry, you’re going to have to do your midterms.”

“Gross.”

“Maybe, if you went to the library more, you wouldn’t have to cram to study for tests.”

Jack stood up straight again, looking at Davey over the shelf. “I go to the library twice a week!”

David rolled his eyes. “Going to the coffee shop after your classes doesn’t count and you know it.” David looked at the mostly finished bookshelf. “When are you going to be done? I’m getting hungry and I’ll definitely want to eat in the next hour.”

“I’ll be done soon, big baby. Where do you want to eat?”

David thought it over. “I don’t know. Name a few places?”

Jack started rattling off places where they could go. David nixed or said sure to the restaurants Jack listed. When they finally settled on one, Jack took off the apron he had on and gathered his things. He called Medda to look over the paint job and when she kissed him on the cheek, David knew that Jack did a good job. Jack and Medda started (playfully) arguing over payment and Jack managed to convince her not to pay him right now, but later when he came back. 

Jack and David left soon enough after. Jack was driving and David was in the passenger seat. Jack turned up the radio and David was really happy just to be there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's done!! i did two chapters in one day because i'll be busy tomorrow and i'll probably forget to post the chapter so why not do it now
> 
> i had a really good time writing this, then posting it these past couple weeks. i hope you all enjoyed it and had fun with the story! if you have any questions or want to talk about it with me my tumblr is @we-were-both-born-today so come over and say hi!
> 
> if you want to read some of my other newsies fics- i have a whole series of a high school au on my page with four fics in it! happy holidays!


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